What God Learns

I’ve always been confused. Does God learn? It seems so, but they say he's all knowing. 

He put man in the garden, right next to the tree, and then banished us so we’d never eat from it again. He allowed us to live long on the earth, and regretted our creation, flooding the world and limiting our days. He made beautiful, strong nations, and when they grew proud, he regretted them and destroyed them, never allowing another nation such glory. But if God’s heart broke over our evil, why allow it in the first place?

The easy answer is free will. But let's throw that out for a moment. It seems God has taken away our free will little by little. He limited our days, scattered our languages, and placed limits on how mighty nations could become. At each moment of incredible evil, he took away our capacity to return to such a state. That's why the question remains. Why did God allow evil in the first place?

Maybe because he loves us. Because he loves us enough to teach us. He loves us enough to allow our ancestors great capacity to sin. We look back at them and learn from their mistakes and never do such things again. He allows us to see the extent of our evil capabilities, and then to see the equivalent punishments. He allows us to see the capacities of Sodom and Gomorah, and teaches us to fear lest we become like them. We should not even long for evil or we'll be turned into pillars of salt. 

So no, God doesn’t learn. But we do. 

Things to pray for:

I'm starting a discipleship group this week with four girls. Please pray that God would give me wisdom and would teach these girls exactly who he has made them to be that they may build up the church in their unique capacities.

Wisdom for how I should act toward outsiders, that my words would always be gracious and seasoned with salt. For perseverance and endurance in the fight.

That I would rest well and honor God with my Sabbaths. That I would know what that means.