"Did God actually say..."

After Creation, God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. Their relationship with God is something that we will not experience until Heaven. God gave them responsibilities and free reign in the Garden of Eden except for them to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A serpent spoke to Eve (this also points to how things were different before sin entered the world) and asked her a question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” This question is full of deception. When God commanded them to not eat of a tree, He named it and made it very specific what they were not supposed to do. The serpent just said, “any tree.” Along with questioning God, this question brought into question why that tree? Why just one tree? The question caused Eve to question what God was keeping from her instead of what God was protecting her from. Having knowledge of what good is might be very enticing, but along with that knowledge comes knowledge of what evil is as well. We tend to want the good and forget about evil so often in our lives. The quest for more is often at the expense of what cost. Eve was tricked into believing that the knowledge of good would make her like God, but she would actually invite evil into the world by her desire for good.

            If we get down to the depth of that question that the serpent asked Eve, we will find something that is at the heart of most sins in the world. We question the truths and promises of God because we desire something more than we desire God and His love. Sin brings darkness into the world and into the lives of sinners all because we question what God said. When most of us were kids, questioning our parents never ended well, but we question God and do not care about the consequences. Sin follows a very predictable pattern in our lives. First, we think about something and question, “Did God actually say…?” Second, we begin to feel like we deserve something, or we should have something, and finally we act on what we think we deserve or want regardless of the consequences. I have sat across from so many people who share with me their sin struggles and this pattern is present in almost all of them. Thinking leads to feeling and feeling leads to action. The Bible in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 tells us:

³ For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, ⁶ being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

The answer to breaking this pattern is found in these verses. When we want to be obedient, we must “take every thought captive to obey Christ”. If we do this, then our thinking will not lead to feeling and action. Our mind is a battleground that we must give over to the Lord, who has the “power to destroy strongholds”. We cannot be obedient to Christ if we do not know what Christ has for us in His Word. If our thinking becomes more obedient to Christ, less sinful actions will follow.

So, when you begin to question God by asking the same question the serpent asked Eve, take that thought captive and trust that God’s plan is better, His way is better, and His timing is perfect. We are challenged by the writer of Hebrews to fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfector of our faith. He paid it all so that we could look to Him for the power and strength to win the battle of our minds and believe God. Godly thinking leads to Godly feelings and Godly actions. That is the pattern we need to develop in our lives daily.