Strength… Is it strong muscles? Physical power?
Is it emotional toughness? An ability to resist?
I’ve never had much physical strength, although I once thought I was pretty tough. The older I get, the more I realize my weakness, the more I come to understand the Source of any strength whatsoever. And I don’t have it.
Jesus said that His grace is all I need. He says that His power is strongest when I am weak. (2Cor. 12:9) What does that mean?
To me, it means that I can choose my own ‘strength’ or I can choose to lay that aside and trust His way. I can choose to stay away from the knowledge that He has forbidden. (..the knowledge of evil.)
I can depend on my human tendency to choose and act poorly, or I can choose to follow what He has said. Simply because He said so…
(By the way, His way sure doesn’t make sense sometimes, and is seldom what I ‘want’. It’s the enemy’s same Garden of Eden tactic…. take a ‘look’, then question God. )
“…the serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'? ……..When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. " (Gen. 3:1,6)
Yes, God did really say….and if she had forgotten or not paid attention….she could have asked HIM for clarification.
Instead, she fell for the enemy’s twist on what God had said, and the tactic that encouraged her to doubt God’s motives.
Instead of simply doing what God said …simply because He had said it. Instead of trusting that He had a very good reason for His instruction.
You see, God is not mean and nasty. He doesn’t say stuff just to take the fun out of life. He has said what He has said for a single purpose. To protect me. And you.
To protect us from evil.
To protect us from choosing the knowledge of it…from experiencing it.
Once that happens, the consequences fall. And strength is not something we gain from it.
Wisdom. Yes.
We are so foolish to believe we are strong enough to dabble in what God has forbidden and come away unharmed. That is another devil’s lie.
Only God can repair, restore, redeem and produce good from our wrong choices.
Only God can clean up the mess we make and restore purity.
But He wants to.
Will you take your brokeness to Him?
Will you just trust what He says?
He is always and only ...good.
