Genesis 3:3-5, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
From the beginning Satan has attempted to get us to question God’s intentions toward us. Satan wants us to believe that God is not good. That He is withholding something from us. As with Eve in the garden, he attempts to break our trust in God. So his first lie is God is not good.
When we believe this lie we live our lives apart from God. We become self-sufficient, and believe we must control our lives because God doesn’t care about us or know that we exist. Negative internal beliefs about God serve as a huge barrier to our healing. Over and over and over I hear people share with me the negative ways they see God and themselves.
Satan’s second lie is your not good enough. He offers Eve god like status and she jumps at the chance. Why? Is it perhaps because he knows she feels inadequate, not good enough, or less favored than Adam. Crafty Satan brings shame into the picture through convincing Eve she could be “god like.”
If you look at the previous chapter in Genesis God proclaimed when Adam was created that it was “very good.” How come we find it so difficult to believe that we are “very good?” How come we so easily accept Satan’s lies and not God’s “very good?”
Remember belief shapes behavior. And if we live believing we are not good we will never live out of the truth that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I spent most of my life sewing fig leaves to cover up; to hide behind, to veil myself with, so that people wouldn’t see what I believed was not good.
One of the stories that has helped me in my journey towards wholeness is from John 8:1-11. Jesus speaks to the woman caught in adultery and protects her from her accusers. Not sure what she thought of herself but the men sure had some condemning things to say. Jesus brought His powerful presence and voice to set her free from her accusers. The presence and power of Jesus pushes away the lies and accusing voices from without and within. Not only for this woman but for each one of us.
Do what you must to learn how to listen to Him.