I am writing this blog because I was dealing with discouragement one day. I was running negative thoughts over and over in my head. I won't go into all of those negative details in this blog, because there none of your business! Just kidding, I value your help, but the best help that a believer can get when they are fighting negative thoughts, is from the Word of God. So that is where I will ask you to turn to; right to the first temptation, in Genesis 3. I want to argue that believers need to be constantly on their guard and need to fight against the temptation that will come, and to do this on a daily basis.
In this narrative you will notice that there are four seen or known characters and one promised One. The main characters are, the Lord, who is seen as the sovereign God over all of His creation, Satan, who was disguised as the serpent, Adam, and then Eve. The unseen character is the promised Seed (verse 16), who will one day crush the head of Satan. namely God's Son, Jesus Christ.
Now the story goes like this, The Lord created all things (Gen. 1-2), and told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them, and this is important to my argument, that if they eat from this tree, they would surely die. This means that they would die physically, spiritually, and eventually suffer an eternal death in the lake of fire.
The serpent is said to be the most cunning of all the beast that the Lord God had made. This is a fitting description of Satan because of his deceptive qualities. Eve does not know who the serpent really is and she innocently answers his question. He begins by questioning her as to what God really said to Adam, and then deceives her into thinking that God did not mean anything bad from his warning. He twisted it to mean that God was actually keeping a good thing from her. Eve answers to the best of her ability, but seems to mess up on some of the facts, but lets not be to hard on her. The point, I think, is how he deceived her into not trusting God's Word to her, namely, he got her to question God's authority over her, His genuine love and care for her, and finally to doubt God's promise. The result is tragic and the ramifications have carried over into our very own life. We are born sinners, and would have suffered eternal separation in the lake of fire, if it were not for the promised One, who came and saved us. So if you have turned from sin, and completely placed your faith in God's Son, Jesus Christ, you are forever saved and need not worry of being separated from God.
How do we apply this narrative to our present lives as believers in Jesus Christ?
We don't have a physical appearance of the Satan who disguises himself as a serpent to deceive us, but Paul says in 2 Cor. 11:3, that he was fearful of Satan coming to the believers and deceiving them like he deceived Eve. Namely, that he would trick us into thinking wrong thoughts of Jesus, the Spirit, and the gospel. In other words, Satan is still at work and attacking us in our minds to not trust in Jesus , be led by the Spirit or not applying the gospel to our daily lives. I am guilty of this and needed to be reminded of who I am in Christ. I also needed to remember to continually keep trusting, and to even fight against not trusting God's promises toward me. We are in a battle that will continue until the old serpent is thrown into the lake of fire, and is no longer a threat to us. Until then we need to keep praying that the Lord will not need to lead us into temptation, and that when He does, we will learn, and keep trusting His Word toward us. So let's pray for Jesus to come even now? That's all for now. Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you, I hope they either brought you to Christ or built you up in the most holy faith. Blessings to you.
Even so come, Lord Jesus,
Gordon A Loop
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