When Satan Tempts You
We come across many temptations in life and when we have heard from God or have read what God's standard is, we are to follow that. But then there are those times that we really aren't sure and we let someone come in and twist what we believe or what God has told us and they mislead us intentionally or unintentionally. Either of those ways is dangerous as you are responsible for your own decisions and the reasons behind why you made those decisions.
In Genesis 3, we have Adam and Eve in the garden with Eve being mislead by the serpent. Eve tells Adam that is it okay to eat from the tree that God instructed them to avoid. Eve disobeys from the serpents words and twisting of what God said and meant. Then Eve leads Adam to do the opposite of what God said buy following the serpent's words. That gets them both in trouble with God. What would have saved them? If Eve would stayed away from the tree. They could have been saved. If Eve could have ignored the serpent they could have been saved. If Adam could have redirected Eve, they could have been saved. Yet, we see they disobey God and force God's hand of punishment (Genesis 3:16-19). Makes you wonder what life would be like if we just obeyed God instead of allowing ourselves to be lied to and mislead.
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Taking Ownership of Our Actions
We have to stop blaming God for where our life is. We have to stop blaming God for how we feel. And we have to stop blaming God for the things that happen to us after we make bad decisions. Ultimately we have to take ownership of our actions. Our actions can be a determining factor as to whether or not we are seeking to be aligned with God or just seeking to please ourselves.
I have had many conversations regarding God and what He would allow in our lives. Such questions circle around topics like why does God allow suffering or evil. The truth is, we live in a broken world full of broken people. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God said in Genesis 2:15-17 that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree except for that tree for surely they would die. So what did Adam and Eve do? They did exactly what they were not supposed to. They were tempted by the serpent (we understand to be Satan or temptation) who in Genesis 3:1-7 questioned what God said and then debunked what God had already commanded.
Isn't that what Satan does to us now? We know what God says based on what is written in scripture. We understand what God says, but when tempted with whatever tempts us, we can fall when we stray away from obedience. We do not always choose to run away from temptation. When we give in to temptations the results can be immediately catastrophic or eventually. I am not writing these things to scare people into obedience but to illustrate how when we do the opposite of what God commands, we fall right into Satan's trap and we are now further away from God.
Remember King David and Bathsheba and how their affair lead to a child out of wedlock and she was married to someone else? In order for David and Bathsheba to try to hide their shame (just like Adam and Eve wearing loincloths after eating the fruit), David tried to have Bathsheba's husband sleep with his wife (had him come home from war early), but Uriah was too drunk and did not so then David set Uriah up to be killed. Do you see how David and Bathsheba's infidelity and disobeying God went from something small and in a worldly sense very "innocent" lead to her husband's death? Even though David eventually married Bathsheba, God was still not happy with what David had done (2nd Samuel 11:27).
Look at is this way, when you do what God says and you are obedient, it doesn't make life perfect, but His will protects us from Satan's temptations and our own selfishness. In Proverbs 14:12 we see how a way that a man/person sees is the right way to them ends up being the track to death (not necessarily physical death- but even spiritual).
When we are tempted to go against God's will, we can either flee from the temptation which leads to only momentary satisfaction or we can seek God's will for our lives on a moment by moment and daily basis which leads to a closer connection to Him. We are not perfect, but God's will for our lives is.
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