The serpent promised Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would make her more like God.
In their book, Walking with God, Jeff Cavins and Tim Gray write of this encounter,
“The serpent suggests that if Eve eats the forbidden fruit, then she will be like God…In the first creation story, we were told that both man and woman were created in God’s image and likeness. The phrase “like God” is carefully repeated, showing that what was given in the first account of creation is something that will now be grasped at in the second story. The irony is that Adam and Eve are already like God.”
It’s easy for me to judge Eve’s choice to disobey the Lord, so many years later reading the Bible from the comfort of my couch. But there are a lot of ways I’ve sought to attain things God has already provided.
Belonging. Love. Approval. Peace. I’ve grasped at these things in all the wrong ways and let failures to attain them my way undermine my confidence and steal my joy. I sought belonging with mean girls who put ketchup on my chair in middle school. (Yes, I unknowingly sat on it.) I strived for approval by going on crash diets to fit into smaller pants in college. I searched for peace in the bottom of an ice cream container in the midst of grief.
If I could go back in time and point my younger self in the right direction, I would tell myself: Commit the scripture below to memory. Stop grasping and start living in the truth of who God says you are.
Belonging
“I have called you by name, and you are mine.” – Isaiah 43:1
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” – 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
Love
“We love because He loved us first.” -1 John 4:19
“God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.”
– 1 John 4:16
Approval
“For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.” – Romans 14:18
“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” – Galatians 1:10
Peace
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11
“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” -Deuteronomy 31:6