Where we all go wrong

This Sunday my husband will be preaching on Genesis 3:1-6. I think it is the saddest chapter in the Bible because it is titled The Fall of Man. How did this happen? How did Adam and Eve go from walking with God in the garden, being united as one flesh with each other and feeling no shame - to being deceived into sin? Verse 1 says that the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made, but he wasn't smarter than man. I believe that what the serpent knew, was that we humans have one major weakness and that is to TRUST God.

I've seen it in my own life and in countless others around me. I don't really believe that God loves me and has a perfect plan for my life. After all, if God loved me, He wouldn't deny me what I want. If he loved me, He wouldn't allow suffering in my life. Lies! All lies! The Bible does not say those things at all. Rather, it says:

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Back to Genesis 3. My husband always says that the worst thing Eve did (and where we all go wrong) was to start a conversation with the serpent. Once he slithered up to her and asked her the question "Did God really say...," she should have not only not listened, but walked away. It never does us any good to "answer a fool in his folly." (Proverbs 26:4) This type of intentional, focused living is not easy. It means discipline. It means training our minds to hear TRUTH. If we hear anything else, we do not listen. We walk away.