Sunday, 22 January 2023
“But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
Temptation makes you dissatisfied with God’s plan for you!
What Satan said was not completely a lie (see v. 22). So what was wrong with it? What was the temptation? He was encouraging Eve to want more than God had given her—to want what was not right.
He did this by stirring up pride in her—“you will be like God”, and by appealing to her physical desires—“good for food…a delight to the eyes”.
Pride—the desire to be popular, to be liked, not to be thought weird—has led so many people to compromise their spiritual convictions. And physical desire—sexual opportunities, overeating, laziness—distracts us from God and makes it easy to desire and even justify what God doesn’t allow in our lives.
Someone has said, “The essence of temptation is the invitation to live independently of God.” Feeling tempted? Get your focus back on God!
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