GOD'S TREES

Gen. 2:9 And the LORD God planted all sorts of trees in the garden—beautiful trees that produced delicious fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is good to eat from the tree of life. We need to feast on that which gives us eternal life. We need to constantly feed on things that keep Christ as the most valuable part of our lives. We must never stop feasting on those things which build us up in faith. There must be an insatiable hunger in our hearts for the things of God. When we stop feeding our souls, we soon grow weak and wither away from God. Our souls need food all the time and we will feed them, whether it is with godly food or that which poisons the soul. We constantly are faced with the decision with which food we will feast on.

It is bad to eat from the tree of God, the tree that exposes us to the knowledge of evil. There is no good that comes from knowing the evils of the world. We must develop a great distaste for the things of evil. There is no limit to how evil the heart can get. We must protect ourselves from knowing too much. We don’t need to know how bad people can get. Evil behavior makes good news stories. We seem to have a desire to know how bad others behave. But, is it good to dwell on those things? It is obvious that many feed off of those things and try to duplicate it in their own lives. How many times have you been tempted to do something just because you know others are doing it? Two wrongs never make a right. We need to change the way we look at things.

Also, we must discipline ourselves to not dwell on the bad ways people treat us. It is never a good thing to know all that others may be doing or saying against us. Rather than dwelling on their negativity, we should dwell on God’s goodness and love. It is always better to focus on that which is good than that which is evil.

It is far better to dwell on those things which build us up than it is on the evil around us that may cause us to be led into sin. We must discipline our minds to not dwell on evil at the expense of the good. We can’t avoid the evil around us, but we can choose not to let it control our thoughts and affect our behavior. Feed your soul on godly things and you will not let unholy things captivate your thoughts and affect your living.