So Adam and Eve are in the garden, having themselves a good ol' time. They can do and eat whatever they like in this perfect paradise, with one exception. They can't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ...So what do they do? They eat from the tree of course.
When we're reading this story, we so often assume that very little time had passed between when Adam and Eve were created and when they eat the forbidden fruit. But how accurate is this assumption? Consider Genesis 4.
It starts with Eve conceiving and then giving birth to Cain. In the very next verse she's having his brother. By the third verse, Cain and Abel are already grown up and off doing manly things. If time can pass that quickly in a matter of 3 verses, we really have no idea how much time Adam and Eve had been living it up in the garden.
God never said they couldn't eat from the tree of life (so maybe they had been snacking on it's fruit all along?!) and it also doesn't say that Genesis 3 was the first time the serpent tempted Eve. All we know was that he was more crafty than any of the other animals. Whose to say he hadn't been bothering Eve for years (and years and years and years!)?
In light of this perhaps we should reconsider our basic assumptions about the nature of humanity and our ability to resist temptation. We so often sell ourselves short because we have it in our minds that we are weak. Adam and Eve only resisted for like 5 minutes, so what chance do we have, right? Wrong. Hold out a little longer. Sure, it's not easy and temptation has a habit of constantly nagging us until we finally cave but we can do things to set ourselves up for success.
Change your situation... Walk away, stop hanging out with that particular person or group. Keep yourself busy. Spend time in prayer and studying the Bible (note: that is different than just reading it). Talk it out with someone... I could go on all day, but you get the point.
Stay strong, friends.
Xx
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