Have you ever seen a firefighter rescue a cat from a tree or a really high ledge? It’s really amazing. Even though the cat is able to get itself up there, it’s unable to get itself down. And despite the fact this firefighters job description is to, in fact, fight fires, they are here rescuing this cat from trouble it got itself into.
Scripture Reading:
Genesis 2:4-9, 15-25; Genesis 3
Ever since eve took a bite of the apple from the tree of knowledge of good & evil, we all have a little bit of that Adam and Eve characteristic in us, an innate need to satisfy curiosity/the need to know everything for ourselves/be rebellious. While a little curiosity can be a good thing, this can also be very bad and I will explain my reasoning on both here today.
You see, Eve biting that apple opened her up to knowledge she was never meant to understand. She bit that apple and it literally and figuratively unearthed/destroyed the only foundation she ever knew. She realized she was naked and went to hide but she never had realized or had a problem with that before. By doing this she had disobeyed God and when he found out he punished all mankind by shutting down the garden of Eden for good; he also threw in a few other punishments as well (mortality, inequality between women & men, menstruation & the pain of childbirth, sibling rivalry, struggle…Sigh, thanks alot Eve, jeeez smh). When she came into that knowledge she exposed herself to things she would have never been exposed to and now because of this she brought struggle on herself. Just like when eve bit the apple we expose ourselves to things we were never meant to understand or grasp the meaning of when we are tempted to satisfy a curiosity. Curiosity can set you up for disaster. We choose our own struggles by the things we are curious about (James 1:13-15). The devil then capitalizes on this curiosity to try to confuse us about who we are and to break our foundation of knowledge.
God, our protector, tried to keep this danger from us. He knew that we were perfectly imperfect, meaning he created us this way. Just like we all are born with an inactivated cancer gene, we all were born with a vulnerability to sin. The bible says that we are all born with evil and sin in our hearts (Psalm 58:3). We were always meant to struggle with something here on this earth. That innate curiosity aka evil desire to be disobedient is what chooses our struggle for us. Once we allow ourselves to be exposed to sin, we fall into a trap that the devil uses to ensnare us. He takes the satisfaction of that curiosity and allows it to confuse our prior teachings/foundation, makes us question it and if we didn’t know the truth before (about who God is, who we are because of him and the glory that he wants to be revealed in us), he makes that satisfied desire our foundation and we base everything around that faux foundation, causing that to be “our truth.” Outside of the protection of the garden, thanks to Eve, we are not only vulnerable to the desire of more knowledge but we are vulnerable to the evil desires of those around us as well. Sometimes were exposed to things because of other people and while this may not be our fault, if we choose to stay in the sin that results from those desires being forced upon us, we no longer have anyone to blame but ourselves.
Now for those of us that know this, the question now is how can we stop trying to acquire knowledge we’ve already been exposed to? By living in the spirit (Galatians 6:16), by trusting God with every single step we take in life, by consulting God before every move that we make so that we are always in his will. And in his will, there is mercy. Gods grace is always there to cover us and there’s nothing we have to do to obtain it (Ephesians 2:8,9). Like I said before, God knows we are perfectly imperfect, which is why he sent his son to save us (2 Corinthians 12:9-,10; 1 Peter 5:10). Through his sons sacrifice, he allowed us to obtain grace and the chance to be connected to him spiritually so that he can lead and guide us. This way our “curiosity/void for knowledge” is satisfied by filling it with the desire for God and the things of God. For those of us who didn’t have this foundation (a Godly foundation) before discovering our struggle, the answer to the question mentioned above is to give your life over to God and let him help you overcome this struggle because it is not something you can overcome on your own. Those things mentioned above (grace & connection with God through the spirit) that came with Christ’s death are also available to you.
So think of a struggle(s) that you’re dealing with and know that while you were born with a vulnerability to it, you were never meant to fulfill it/stay in it.
The thing that prompted me to write this is a struggle that I find myself dealing with. We are ALL imperfect, but through God we can reach the perfection standard that God has set for us (Matthew 5:48). We make Eves mistake daily, each time we allow ourselves to give into temptation. We know we shouldn’t take a bite of that apple but we do it anyways. Now because of this, because of fornication, we find ourselves connected to someone we have no business being connected to, dealing with issues they had that we never had. Because we wanted to fulfill a sexual desire/curiosity, we find ourselves with an addiction to pornography, a warped version of sex, a pass time, when sex was always meant to be a precious & private gift for marriage. Because we as curious creatures are so inclined to know and understand everything, we find ourselves trying to rationalize God, when God cannot be rationalized (Isaiah 55:8,9).
While these are only a few ways in which knowledge negatively affects our lives, it affects our lives positively as well. We are exposed to knowledge now and there’s nothing we can do about that, but now that we know all that we know, we can CHOOSE to walk the right path, which I personally think was Gods plan all along. Remember, it was the tree of knowledge of GOOD and evil that God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from. He wants us to have the freedom to choose the right path. He wants us to CHOOSE him, not be forced to because we don’t have all the facts. Because when we CHOOSE him, we are really demonstrating our love for God (John 14:15). He sacrificed his only son so that we may have another chance at eternal life, the least we can do is fight this internal urge to satisfy ungodly desires. We all know sacrifice begins with love, but we’ll get into that another time. We now have all the information we need to make wise decisions, now all we need to do is go forth and make them.
Has curiosity led you to a struggle you can’t kick? Share with everyone how God is helping you overcome this struggle.
ellamatrix 