Genesis 3:1-2
"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’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”I was struck by the serpent's first words, but also how the dialogue continued down a dangerous path. The serpent (AKA Satan) used the PERFECT first words to lure Eve into conversation. "Did God really say?" I would bet the serpent already knew what God had actually said... but this lures Eve, and Adam "who was with her", into conversation with the being plotting their demise. By asking the question "Did God really say?" it led them into a place of questioning God's words, his instructions that were meant for their own well being.
How often do we use that thought process to question God's goodness or try and excuse our mistakes or rationalize sin? Or try and find a loophole in one of God's commandments? I am not saying that we should never ask "why" because Job did all the time, or that we shouldn't have intellectual inquiries about different theological, eschatological, or moral topics. Or that we shouldn't study scripture with a critical eye for exegesis... But the temptation to hem and haw and say "well God doesn't REALLY mean I should get drunk," or "God doesn't REALLY mean I need to love everyone," or "Jesus didn't mean it when he said 'I am the way, truth, and the life,' is completely walking in our own flesh and wanting live in our own will instead of following the better plan that the Creator has.
I have to stop thinking that my time is my own... It's really the Lord's, just like everything else in this world.
What are your saying "God didn't really mean that" to that He wants you to change? Do it, it's worth it. Don't listen to the serpent. James 4:7 and 2 Corinthians 10:5
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