Learning to say, 'NO'

"The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.           Genesis 3:6    CSB

This particular time, the devil was having a hey day; he had completely hooked Eve and he was now reeling her in to make things worse. This is what the devil does. He plays on our weak spots; he knows what works and what doesn't, in fact he has a dossier about us, containing many of the things he has gathered throughout your life time. This makes him able to pick out certain things that he knows you will struggle with.

Here, we know that he had avoided speaking to Adam, even though he was there, the serpent concentrated on Eve because he knew that her experience with God, was weak. He had already given her taste buds a tweak, now he encouraged her to look at the tree with its fruit exposed and ready for picking. If we focus on the wrong things for long enough they can begin to look 'delightful' and this adds to the unsatisfied desire within us. This is not always sexual lust, it can be the lust for power - to be a somebody having great wisdom and strength. It can lead to dictatorship and yearning to want more. It is a want, want, want yearning, never being satisfied with what you have, there is always a longing to have what someone else has. 

The devil encourages this type of behaviour by presenting the picture before you, rather like here with Eve. The more she looked, the more she wanted and she may have said, 'I'll just try it once, that won't hurt.' The devil may have replied, 'You never know until you try,' and then, he had her in his clutches. 

As we have seen, Adam never lifted a finger to stop this; he went ahead with it all and even ate some of the fruit himself. A while later when they heard the LORD God walking though the garden and calling their name, they hid from Him. Why did they do that? What does this tell you?  It tells you that they were feeling guilt; this was why they hid away; they knew they were in the wrong. It is the same with us. When we have committed sin, in fact premeditated it, the majority of us feel the guilt of it all, especially if a pastor or close Christian friends share fellowship with us. I have read that some counsellors have admitted that some of the things people have told them about, they have done also and it has brought a feeling of hypocrisy upon them. 

We are all the same, we are all prone to a sinful nature and we need to be in charge of this by being in control. We know when something is forbidden and we know when we are feeling temptation towards such things. That is the time to say, 'NO', rather like Joseph when he walked away from Potiphar's adulterous wife (Genesis 39). He took control and so should we.

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                 

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