How do we make decisions?
- Jacob Ninan
We know that when God left Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden there was only one thing that He specifically told them not to do. They were not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Ge.2:16,17). God also told Adam about what would happen if they disobeyed. They would 'die.' This death was not only physical death that they would have to face, but also spiritual, in that they would lose their fellowship and communion with God.
But we know what happened. Satan tempted Eve, downplaying what God had told them and luring her with the attractive appearance of the fruit, her curiosity to taste it and the possibility of becoming wise (Ge.3:1-6). Poor Eve fell into the trap because she could not see what could be wrong with attractive and tasty fruit, especially if it had the power to make her wise. Her biggest mistake was in overruling what God had clearly and specifically said.
When God has said "No" to something, it is certainly because it is bad for us. On the other hand when God tells us to do something, it is because it is good for us. How do we fall? When we are moved by our feelings or reasoning and ignore what God has said. Certain things seem to be attractive to us, and we put aside what God has said.
Even when we are going against what God has said, like Eve we justify ourselves by brining out some 'good' reason for our disobedience. When we want to marry an unbeliever we make ourselves believe that by doing so we would be able to bring him or her into God's family. When we are running after money or doing something crooked to make more money we tell ourselves that we will have more money to give for missionary work. We are quite ingenious when it comes to justifying ourselves.
But the fact still remains that every time we disobey God we 'die' (Ro.8:13). If we have fallen there is good and bad news. The good news is that we can be forgiven if we confess our sins (1Jn.1:9). The bad news is that some of the consequences of our sins may last through our whole life.
Why don't we learn to recognise that if God has said something there is no going around it? There is no way we can ignore or disobey God and justify ourselves. It doesn't matter how attractive a proposal appears to be to us. If God has said "No", that settles it.