Nip Sin in the Bud Part I.

Genesis 3:1
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.

This, I think, is the core of making that move to surrender to God allowing you to fully experience God and his love abundantly. The deception back in the Garden of Eden was the very first trick that the devil used on a human being - Eve. It caused her to sin and he's not original because he uses the same trick today. So, let's try to weed ourselves out of the devil's twisty tricks.

You see, God created a lovely world within the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had everything in there they could possibly imagine. There were specific directions, however. God said not to eat from a particular tree in the middle of the garden. God, being who he is, knows that horrible suffering will result by ignoring these directions, and out of love, he tries to prevent that from happening.

Satan entered the picture then and tried to degrade God asking Eve why God would ever prohibit them from eating at any tree if he's so loving. Of course, this wasn't entirely true; it was just one tree that they had to avoid. The devil mixes up stories usually making them maybe only half true.

That is why God has given us his Word - the Bible. Our life is not meant to be dull and boring. Instead, he wants to protect you from the worst of sin's wrath. Even if the evil one says that you're missing out on something, don't give in...that's part of his scheme! He wants you to lose your trust and faith in God so that you can't fully surrender to him and can't possibly defeat sin. You have to trust someone to fully surrender to them. Try seeing God as one who is protecting us with a security blanket and maybe the surrendering process will be easier even if we have all the resources. This is why this such a significant step!

"Satan's goal is to paint God as an overly restrictive jerk whose instructions keep us from experiencing good and pleasurable things." ~Mike Guzzardo