In our women’s bible- study we are going through the book of Genesis. So far it’s been a grand reminder of our Creator and the wonder of His creation. We’ve been reminded that by His spoken word, He created and it was so. He didn’t consult with anyone nor did he have to submit His plans for final approval to some other created being. All that He created submitted to His voice and came into being because of His infinite wisdom and power. On top of that, He declared that everything He spoke into existence was good. In the Hebrew language that means that it was the best possible outcome. Who could make those claims but God! From magnificent landscapes to the tiny ladybugs, they exist because of Him! Then, God formed mankind with and altogether separate identity! Quite different from His created world, God made man in His image. We were created to share in the likeness of God and in the original plan, the implications of being His image bearers was meant to complete the grand scheme of perfection and beauty that would praise His awesome being throughout the ages.
We’re now getting ready to study Genesis 3. For those of us who know this passage, we’re all too aware of what’s coming. We have been at the the heights of praise and now it feels as though we are preparing for a crash landing. The third chapter opens in stark sentences to the reality of one who was intent on the demise of all God created. For years I have challenged not only myself but other women, to observe how all that it took for the enemy to succeed in the fall of humanity was three little words.
It was in the form of a question that the serpent proposed to Eve.
Let’s listen to Gen 3 vs 1-2, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?
That question (has God said) was all that the enemy needed to get Eve second guessing God’s good and acceptable and perfect will for her life. Remember, up until that point she was thriving in unprecedented beauty and perfection.
Ladies, have things really changed? How often do we listen to those thoughts in our head that question God’s word, His goodness and His wisdom? Could it be the very reason we so often find ourselves dissatisfied, disenchanted or uncertain?
We need to take back our thought life and stop letting the enemy do the same thing he did with Eve. It only takes a question, a doubt or a seemingly harmless narrative to motivate us to think differently but often defectively about God and His word. The apostle Paul had a word about this regarding our thought life, and may I add the emotions that follow.
Listen to his prescription for right thinking in 2 Cor 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are divinely (mighty before God) powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
Have we settled the fact that so much of our struggling, striving and anxiety is do to the questioning and misinformation from the serpent of old, (has God said)? We cannot afford to be soft on ourselves. The stakes are too high and the destruction is too costly. Yes, it is an ongoing battle and sometimes we get weary. But God has given us beyond sufficient strength and triumph through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the power of His word and the indwelling of His Spirit to own everything Jesus has made available to us through His conquering work at the cross.
This is the secret to becoming women who know their God and put unshakeable confidence in Him. This is the key to living the life God has ordained for you and the victory that Christ has secured for you.