You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. (Psalm 139:5)

At the Fall, why did God curse Adam and Eve with an emptiness that nothing would be able to fill? Wasn’t life going to be hard enough out there in the world, banished from the Garden? It seems unkind. Cruel, even.

He did it to save them. For as we all know, the heart shifted at the Fall. Something sent its roots down deep into their souls — that mistrust of God’s heart and resolution to find life on their own terms. So God thwarted them. In love, he blocked their attempts until, wounded and aching, they turned to him for their rescue.

Jesus has to thwart you too. Your controlling and your hiding; the ways you seek to fill the ache within you. Otherwise, you would never fully turn to him for your rescue. Oh, you might turn to him for a ticket to heaven when you die. But inside, your heart remains broken far from the One who can help you.

And so you will see the gentle, firm hand of God in your life hemming you in. Wherever it is you have sought life apart from him, he disrupts your plans, your “way of life” that is not life at all.

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How has God been “hemming you in,” disrupting the plans you have to make life work?

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