When God Says “No”, Don’t Even Nibble
"Has God said?" the devil asked Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3:1). The first woman was then duped into believing that God's rules are oppressive and that one can find satisfaction in disobedience.
Yes, there were all the other fruit trees—Eve had unlimited access to those—but after her peculiar encounter with Satan in the form of a snake, she was no longer happy with what the LORD had provided for her and Adam. If God said not to eat from the tree of good and evil, it had to be because He was keeping something pleasurable from them.
It was the birth of suspicion.
Whenever you and I go against God's will, it's because we, like Eve, don't fully trust that the Lord has our best interest at heart. Think about it: if we were convinced that His ways are always superior to ours, we would always choose them!
When we embrace our agenda over God's, it's because, at least at the moment of decision, we believe we know better than Him. Sounds awful when you put it that way, but it's true.
The devil, on his part, is keenly aware that humanity’s fight against sin is a fight against unbelief. Unbelief is what's at the root of every one of our sins, big or small.
"Has God said?" Satan hisses in our ears, trying to get us to question whether God is communicating clearly with us. Just like he did with Eve.
"Maybe God didn't really mean it like that."
"Maybe you didn't hear Him correctly."
"Maybe He didn't mean total abstinence or complete sobriety."
"Maybe you can just have a nibble."
When Satan asks questions to make us doubt God's goodness, it is to get us to compromise our convictions. And before we know it, we've bought into the enemy's big, fat lie that there's fulfillment to be found outside God's plan for us. Even if our experience has shown us time and time again that nothing good ever comes from disobeying God, we still delude ourselves into thinking we can successfully live by our own rules.
And our spirit of defiance doesn't suddenly go away just because we've become a Christian! Let's remember that sins of the heart—things like self-reliance, arrogance, contempt, ingratitude, and resentment—are also rebellion against God, even if they don't manifest themselves as blatant outward insubordination.
To make matters worse, we often add to our sin by trying to justify it. God won't hold it against me, we argue. It's my one little vice. They're only thoughts...who am I hurting?
The prophet Jeremiah knew what he was talking about when he said, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
That our hearts are depraved plays right into the hands of the enemy, whose strategies tend to be subtle. Ask anyone who has ever gotten caught up in immorality or addiction, and I bet they'll tell you that the way they got there was by compromising.
The adulterous affair didn't just "happen." The pastor and the children's ministry director didn't, out of the blue, decide to go get a hotel room one night.
No, the affair started months earlier at the church office with a few friendly remarks—engagement, which over time became more flirtatious. The chatting led to social media interaction, late-night texting, and eventually, a private meeting under the pretense of discussing the church calendar in the restaurant of a nearby hotel.
We often move so gradually on the slippery slope of compromise that we barely notice. Then, one not-so-fine day, we realize we've plunged headlong into serious sin: suddenly, we're finding ourselves somewhere we would never have imagined ourselves going in our wildest dreams!
As the adage goes, "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay."
Oh, yes.
Have you noticed that the enemy always tries to downplay sin's consequences? He wants us to believe we're strong enough to tackle "small" compromises, that we can nibble without going all the way. "You're different," he says, appealing to our pride. "Others may have gotten burned, but you won't."
Satan is also extremely patient. He "prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). He is intimately familiar with our triggers, having studied human behavior since the beginning of time.
Not only that, but his demons have been following each of us around, individually, all of our lives. They’ve learned how to get us to lower our guard, using our weaknesses against us.
The devil will plot for as long as it takes to set us up for failure. Masquerading as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), he works tirelessly to make the forbidden seem irresistible to us. He knows this is the way to get us. Keep in mind, it was because the fruit appeared to be "good for food" and "a delight to the eyes" (Genesis 3:6) that Eve felt compelled to sink her teeth into it. Had the fruit not looked so juicy, I doubt she would have had a problem passing on the offer!
The million-dollar question, then, is this: How do we resist the urge to nibble on that which God has commanded us to stay away from?
The answer to this question is also the life-long challenge you and I face as Christians: It's to believe God over Satan, even when God's restrictions don't make sense to us and the devil's "solutions" seem oh-so reasonable.
As already stated, the battle against sin is a battle against unbelief. But contrary to what some people may think, the way to victory is not to rely on our own willpower. Willpower can keep us on the straight and narrow for a while, but it alone won't help us grow in godliness.
Rather, to not slip into disobedience, we need to be so deeply in love with Jesus that the desire to act against His will loses its pull on us.
We need to grasp, on a heart level, that what Jesus has to offer us is best. Obeying God then becomes something we do gladly, not only because we "should."
"Has God said?" is the devil's favorite question. But "we are not ignorant of his schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11). God has said, and the reason He has said is because we are precious to Him!
Our Abba Father wants to protect us. He wants the absolute best for us. It's for this reason—not because He wants to spoil our fun—that while the enemy of our souls invites us to dig in, our loving God says not even to nibble.
L.B.
Did you enjoy this read? Then be sure to check out my related post on spiritual warfare.
A person who truly is content in God is less likely to go searching for happiness outside of His will. And in John 6:35, Jesus promises that if we seek Him, He’ll satisfy us. Have you found these things to hold true in your own life? Please share in the comments below!
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