May 1, 2018

We Can Say No

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” – Genesis 3:1

We are good at rationalizing our choices, aren’t we? It’s a trap that leads us to a place we never intended to go. We fall for it all the time.

First, it’s the voice that asks us if the Bible really says what we think it says. Surely the pastor didn’t mean we should deprive ourselves of something we really want. God wants good things for us and we would really enjoy a new toy or vacation or outfit.

We could take it to the Bible. We could pray and ask God to reveal to us what He really said. We could seek His wisdom. But we’d really rather not. Why? Because what if God doesn’t tell us what we want to hear?

We want to follow God when it comes to blessings. We want to seek His will so long as His will conforms to ours. We aren’t so quick to follow His plan when we don’t really understand or agree with Him.

Ah. There it is. We don’t always want what God wants for us. We want to be the god of our own lives. We want to do what we want to do and we want God to, in turn, bless it all and give us loads and loads of riches and great success.

Did you feel just a twinge of conviction when you read that? Good. It’s a first step in getting your life in complete alignment with God’s will.

Notice that the serpent (Satan) didn’t directly attack God when he first approached Eve. She would have seen right through that. His words were subtle, seeds planted to make her question if God really had Eve’s best interest in His mind.

The conversation continued. Eve told the serpent what God had said. And Satan responded. Satan always responds when we try to resist.

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

– Genesis 3:4

We want to be like God, don’t we? We want to know what’s best for us. We want to control our own destiny. We want our will to be our first priority. We want what we want when we want it. Surely God can see that we deserve only good in our lives.

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. – Genesis 3:6

Eve got what she wanted. Her eyes were opened, as were Adam’s, and life changed forever. I wonder how much time she spent wishing she’d never listened to the serpent. I wonder if she truly regretted a decision she couldn’t undo. I wonder if she ever thought she’d just give anything if she’d said no and walked away.

How many times in your life have you thanked God for saying no? Sometimes hindsight reveals that what we thought we wanted, what we just knew we had to have, wasn’t really good for us. It could be a relationship, a job, an opportunity that looked so very enticing.

When God says no, there’s a reason for it. When we push forward anyway, there are consequences. Sometimes there’s nothing really wrong with what we want – it’s just that God has something better planned for us. Sometimes God sees how we’ll get tangled up in something we never intended and that mess will lead us where we really don’t want to go.

Here’s the thing: We can say no. We can walk away. We can follow God even when the world tells us to go a different way. It’s your choice. What are you going to do?

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Battle Lies With God’s Word

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” -- Genesis 3:1

The serpent didn’t tempt Eve blatantly. He didn’t urge her to disobey God. In fact, his statement had a measure of truth. God said Adam and Eve could eat from all the trees in the garden -- except one.

The serpent explained that God didn’t want Eve to eat from the tree because her eyes would be opened and she would be like God, knowing good and evil. We see the roots of wanting what we’re told we can’t have. We still haven’t learned that God does know best.

Instead, we’ve allowed Satan to subtly enter our minds. We doubt God’s promises. We doubt that God will take care of us. We doubt that God loves us always. We doubt that we are enough for God.

Maybe if Satan’s lies were blatant we wouldn’t be so apt to be mislead. We can deny so many charges. Most of us are decent people trying to live good lives. But negative comments have a way of lodging themselves in our minds, resurfacing when we are at our weakest. We believe Satan’s lies rather than God’s truth.

How do we fight it? God’s Word. Learn to quote Scripture back at Satan. Jesus modeled this for us when He spent 40 days and nights in the desert being tempted by Satan. Matthew tells us that Jesus quoted God’s Word back to Satan, refusing to give in to Satan’s schemes.

We can do the same thing. When Satan tells us we aren’t good enough, we can remind him and us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14) When Satan tells us that we are in over our heads, not pretty enough, not smart enough, or any other lie, we can remind him and ourselves that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13)

We aren’t likely to ever conquer insecurity. It’s one of those battles we’ll always fight because we’ll continue to look around us, comparing ourselves to others, and looking down on who we are. But we can refuse to give Satan a foothold. We can battle his every attack with God’s Word.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Believe God, Not Lies of Others

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made."

-- Genesis 3:1a

I'm sure everyone knows about Adam and Eve. They had it made, living in the Garden of Eden, where God met all their needs. But they were human. And the serpent knew that as humans, Adam and Eve wanted more than what they had. That hasn't changed much.

It's easy to blame it all on Eve. As women, we're accustomed to feeling the sting of criticism when something goes wrong. And, yes, Eve did accept the fruit from the serpent and eat it. And, yes, she did offer it to Adam. The little phrase that we tend to overlook says, "who was with her." That would be Adam, who was with her during her chat with the serpent. Adam could have stopped Eve from eating the fruit. He could have refused to eat what Eve offered. He could have condemned the serpent. Nope. He ate -- and then blamed Eve.

But I digress. Why did Eve eat the fruit in the first place? The serpent made it sound like a good idea. He twisted God's words -- knowingly -- in order to lead Eve where he wanted her to go. I've always thought of this as Satan (the serpent) tempting Eve. I heard someone recently refer to this as false teaching. I'd never heard it called that. But it really does fit.

The serpent told Eve some things that just weren't true. And instead of believing God, she chose to believe Satan. Don't we do the same thing? God tells us how to live our lives, He gives us a guide within the Bible, and we choose to ignore it and do what we want.

Now you're saying, "Wait a minute." You probably don't want to be lumped in with murderers and burglars and drunks. But sin is sin. Have you ever wished something awful for someone who wronged you? Have you ever wanted something someone else had? Have you ever had a little bit too much dessert? Sin is sin, no matter how many times we tell ourselves our sin is different.

Eve didn't sin when the serpent tempted her. She sinned when she fell for his lies rather than believing God. We should remember this so we don't make the same mistake in our own lives. When we trust God to lead us, we can resist temptation and miss an awful lot of heartache.