...run back...

“1 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’?’

2 The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,’ 3 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.’ 

4 ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. 5 ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’

6 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. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” Genesis 3:1-7.

I think verses 4-5 are the most revealing verses ever written that describe the way Satan tempts us. He promises us in his temptations that we can put off any consideration of death when we accept his temptations. Our physical death and our spiritual death are simply two things we don’t ever have to worry about when we walk away from the Lord. But such is not the truth. When we ingest the temptations of Satan we immediately open the door to spiritual death by simply choosing evil and sin over the love and grace of Jesus Christ. And it takes only a millisecond to remember that everyone dies and leaves this earth. But when we are being tempted by Satan, he cleverly seduces us to believe we are okay stepping aside from the Lord.

Satan wants us to believe that he has something much more valuable than what the Lord has for us: Satan knows the Lord! But nothing can be further from the truth. Satan wants us to believe that when we sin, we will not only be okay but we will also know the Lord better than ever —  “our eyes will be opened, and we will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Dear friends, the time has come — today, run back to the Lord. If there is anything in your life you are holding onto that is sinful, run back to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you and put you back on the path to following Him! Don’t be deceived. Don’t be trapped in developing habits that are sinful. Don’t put your toe in the water, convinced that you can pull it back any time you wish and return to the Lord. 

Know for certain that the Lord loves you and wishes to forgive you. Run back too Him!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.