Genesis 3:1 - Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
I read and hear so often: if government would step in, if laws were enacted, if people would be more tolerant. But if one takes any issue, whether political, personal (addictions) or governmental and takes steps backward to identify the root cause you will always find it boils down to a heart issue.
I say this often. We live in a fallen world. The Word of God describes this in great detail...for us to know and “take to heart.” However, many choose not to believe all that is written in this Book. And this is exactly how sin came into the world. “Did God really say...?”
It doesn’t matter if it was not eating a particular fruit or walking down a certain path or sitting on “that” rock. It was the fact that God told them not to...for their own benefit. The end of this scriptural thought goes like this: Eve told the serpent that God said not to eat of this fruit lest they die. And the serpent, that lying, deceitful guy that he is even today, countered with: ...”You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)
Well, this deceiver devil is still up to his tricks and many fall for his lies hook, “lie” and sinker. Abortion is not murder, being attracted to someone of the same sex is not a sin, drunkenness is okay, looking at another of the opposite sex with specific desires is not lust if not carried out, a white lie is okay. I could go on...way beyond the 10 Commandments. There are many more subtle sins found. Ones we are all guilty of: impatience, anger, gluttony, gossip, using God’s name in vain (as an exclamation of anger, frustration or just because instead of in praise).
If any of this sounds a bit much, it isn’t to God. His standards are way higher than ours. And it’s why He calls us to come to Christ to be forgiven and receive a heart change...the major thing God wants to do.
This heart change isn’t something we can determine to do on our own. He supplies the power to overcome. When we come to Christ we are justified, of our sins like this is sometimes said, “just as if I’d” never sinned. All sins are forgotten. But not all sins are removed; we are in a perpetual state of sanctification until we die. But...we have the ability to go direct to God when we realize our sin and ask His forgiveness on the spot. And Jesus stands in the gap between us and the Father. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus...(1Timothy 2:3-5)
I know I am far from perfect and I know that only Jesus was perfectly free from sin and guilt. It’s why He has become our Redeemer. Though we cannot be perfect until He returns and we receive our glorified bodies, we can choose to have the assurance of perfection and a perfect life as God had originally intended for us. All we have to do is sincerely ask Him for the forgives of our sins and ask that His Spirit become that one who guides us.
God absolutely knows the intents of our heart. Often, as we sadly are seeing in the world today, He has given man over to their evil desires, not that He wants to, but that He must if they decide not to seek Him and turn from their sin.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 -“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
