Eve - Apple? Pear? Apple? Pear?

Genesis 3:4-6 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

There have been many sermons pass many ears about the importance of prayer before any decision. Now, I'll admit, at first - this seemed a little silly to me. To pray before I decide what outfit to wear for the day - or pray to decide which fast food restaurant to hit on the way home from wherever the kids needed to be that day - seemed a little redundant to me. Not that it wasn't worth the time to talk to God, but that it wasn't important enough to bother Him with.

We are bombarded with thousands of decisions every day - so the blanket prayer of guidance is always good. But it was this verse that drove home the point of praying over the every day decisions. Eve was being tempted by Satan. We are tempted every day, in every way. The decision she had to make seemed fairly small. Should I eat an apple from this tree? Or a pear from this other tree? Now, we know that she was told to stay away from that one tree, so on a side note, why was she so close to it? The Bible doesn't say she made a three day journey to get to the tree, she was there next to it. Sometimes, when we know something is too tempting, we need to remove ourselves from it - or build a concrete wall around it.

If Eve would've stopped for just a moment and asked God whether or not she should've eaten that "apple" - our lives may be very different. Adam was no help, he just took the apple and ate it too. It's not enough to go to friends and family for advice - it has to be God. What we, and everyone else, may see is a choice between two different types of fruit - but what God sees is the future of His people. And while a decision that you make may not determine the outcome of a nation, it may impact your relationship with someone else - and the opportunity to witness to them. Perhaps you go to Wendy's instead of McDonald's and God had someone there who needed to hear about Him. Maybe your brown shoes would strike up a conversation with a co-worker who compliments those shoes and that gives you an opportunity to talk about Jesus that you might not have otherwise had. Perhaps choosing vegetables for lunch over french fries will give your immune system the boost it needs to fight that flu you were exposed to and allows you to continue your volunteer work.

We have no idea what God has in store for us or what He needs us to do - but if we 'ask' and let Him guide our decisions, we could make a world of difference for Him.