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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Almost Isn't Enough (Week 4: Bonus Devo 1)


Genesis 3:2-3: "The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, "You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die."'"

What is the one movie you have seen more than any other? Are you thinking of it? Right now, you could probably pick up the dialogue from any point in that movie. You may even have incorporated phrases from the film into your regular conversation. That's your movie; you know it backward and forward. In fact, you have such a personal attachment to it that you get offended when people try to quote it only to butcher the words.

As you read the encounter between the serpent and Eve in Genesis 3, notice that the serpent questioned the word of God. And Eve seemed at first to defend those words. But if you read carefully, you'll see that when Eve quoted God back to the serpent, she "almost" got it right. Almost, but not quite. And in this case, almost isn't good enough. The troubling thing for most of us is that Satan might actually have a better grasp on the Word of God than we do. He knows who God is, and He knows what God said. If we want to be serious about defending attacks from the Devil, we had better know what God said too-not almost know, not sort of know, but know...exactly.

And why shouldn't we? We memorize everything else: song lyrics, movie lines, favorite quotes-why not the Bible? Could it be that we simply don't have the same personal attachment to Scripture that we do to so many other things? 

Pause and Reflect

  • How well do you know God's Word?
  • What keeps you from enjoying time with God and His Word?
  • Could it be that Satan knows the Word of God better than you do? What changes do you need to make to reverse that?

1 comment:

  1. Whew. Good stuff. It's life and death to know the Word. And it's got to be enough for us.

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