Listening to the serpent

 

We all have done it at some point. Many of us still do it. It is the reason there is so much sin, pain, suffering, and evil in the world. Listening to the serpent. Eve did it first. The serpent told her if she ate the forbidden fruit, she would not die, but she would be just like God. She fell for his lies, and the rest is history. Sin entered the world because one person listened to the serpent.

  Some of the lies he tells are easier to ignore, at least for me:
Go ahead, steal that. No one will know
You won't get addicted to those cigarettes.
God doesn't exist.
You won't become an alcoholic if you drink that.
Abortion isn't murder

  And then there are the ones I have believed him on:
You're worthless
You're a failure
God doesn't love you
If you're a Christian, you'll be alone forever
No one likes you
There's no use in trying
You might as well give up

  And there are more. We criticize Eve, and rightly so. She and Adam had Paradise. Everything was perfect. They could do anything they wanted, except eat the fruit of that one tree. Then Satan lied to her and she fell for his lies and changed everything. Yet we do it.

God says He loves us. The devil tells us he doesn't, and we believe the devil.
God tells us we are worth everything, and died to prove it. Satan tells us we are worthless, and we believe him.

  Listening to the serpent will never have the horrible rippling effect for us that it did for Eve, but it can still have horrible long lasting effects. It can destroy marriages, hurt people, ruin us and others, bring jail time, sickness, death.

 Other lies won't have those effects, but can cripple us emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Why is it so easy to listen to the devil instead of God? He is called the father of lies, so he is really good at it. He seems to know our insecurities and plays on them. He uses the bad things that happen in our life to tell us God doesn't care, that God doesn't love us, that God doesn't exist.

  And the crazy part..... anything bad that happens is the devil's fault. He started it all when he tempted Adam and Eve.... yet he blames God, and we believe him.

  But the thing is, he is sneaky and oh so good at what he does. He camouflages  his lies so we think its just our insecurities and self esteem. And in part it is, but it is still lies and lies come from him.

  Believing some of his lies may not lead us to sin, but imagine what we as individuals, and as a church, could accomplish for God if we completely quit believing Satan's lies.