Put Faith in God
January 03, 2021
A few days ago, I began reading the bible in a year podcast hosted by Fr. Mike Schmitz (which I would highly recommend, Fr. Mike is a dynamic speaker and he is easy to listen to/learn from). Yesterday’s readings from the podcast were of Genesis 3, 4 along with a verse from Psalms. In Genesis 3, we see that the serpent tempts Eve to take fruit from the tree of life, which she does so and gives it’s fruit to Adam, and they both see that they are naked and in the garden. God subsequently finds out of their sin, curses the serpent and expels both Adam and Eve out of the garden to toil on Earth for the rest of their lives.
Harsh.
The first fall
Why did Eve/Adam take the bait of the devil? As explained by Fr. Mike, the serpent seeks to undermine our trust in God, to make us believe that we do not or should not need God. (Paraphrasing, speaking as the serpent) “Surely you will not die if you eat of the fruit of the tree of life, but your eyes will be opened to what is good and what is evil in the world.” The devil wants us to depend on ourselves, because surely he (the devil) knows that when this is the case, we will fall into sin and from God.
It’s quite easy to see that the devil uses this same plan of attack today, in one example; choosing to have children. As someone who wants to be a future parent, I am aware that I will be bringing children into a world that is not all holy or all good; there is a lot of ugly in our world. I’ve previously held the position of not desiring to have children because of all the bad I do not want to expose my future children to. This is a tempation of the devil.
Our challenge
The devil knows the world can be bad, and wants us to believe we are helpless. These are not lies, but let us not remember we live under the Will of God, who is all good and almighty and all-powerful. When we put our faith in ourselves, we will always fail. When we put our faith in God, we can never lose. Let us remember Who is strengthening us and who loves us for all eternity and does not want us to fail - let us trust in Him.
We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28