Wholeness Sample

THE CHOICE & THE FALL

The greatest gift God has given us is freedom of choice. Without the freedom to reject Him, we are powerless to choose Him. Choice, however, can mean life or death and Satan, also known as the deceiver, uses that freedom against us to lure us into independence from God. Genesis chapter three reveals three primary strategies Satan used and still uses today to side-track us from our relationship with God.

The first is ‘doubt’… “Did God really say…” is often what the thought attack can sound like. His approach is subtle, to get us to question the truth and goodness of God.

The second is ‘lies’ … “You won’t die…” is the reply he gave the woman in the garden - this was a blatant lie as God had told them that disobeying Him and eating the fruit would result in death. Satan is known as the father of all lies. The problem is that if we don’t know what the truth is, how will we be able to discern lies?

The third is ‘temptation’… “If you eat the fruit, you can be like god…” Satan makes disobeying God look good, hence why Adam and Eve ended up breaking the only rule God had given them.

Notice how the enemy wanted us to choose self-dependence (to be the god of our own lives - note I used a small "g") rather than dependence on God. Because of Adam and Eve's choice, we are all born into a fallen and sinful world. Still to this day, we fight the same fight that Adam and Eve began in the Garden of Eden. Our wrestle is either choosing self-reliance, as we have now inherited the knowledge of good and evil, or trusting in God.

Although this is a harsh reality, it’s not all doom and gloom because God wasn’t surprised by Adam and Eve's choice, just as he isn't surprised by our choices today. What is interesting to note is how God responded to Adam and Eve's (our) mess versus how they (we) responded. Their response was driven by shame - they ran, hid, covered up, and blamed. These are defence mechanisms we still use today. Despite these defences, God’s response was to go looking for them. He called out, asking, “where are you”… it's important to realise that this is a positional question that reveals how God is more interested in where you (your position in relation to Him) than in what you have done. God then makes another great response of covering their nakedness with animal skins He made for them - this means Adam and Eve would have witnessed the killing of the first innocent victim to cover their shame – this is the foreshadowing picture of Christ. Our redemptive hope.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• What doubts do you wrestle with regarding God?
• What beliefs/lies do you struggle with about your value?
• What areas of your life do struggle to trust God with?

PRAY:

God, I pray that you would show me the lies that I have held onto and the spaces in my life that I have chosen to hold onto instead of trust you with. Please give me the wisdom and power to choose to follow you in every area of my life.