“Why Not?”

Growing up what was something that your parents told you not to do? Maybe it was to not talk to strangers, or to not play with matches. Maybe it was to not eat too much of some kind of food or to not stay up late on a school night. Well, when you were told this, did you ever feel the curiosity inside of you rise up and ask, Why? In fact, I know that when I was told not to do something it caused me to want to do it, just to see what would happen if or when I did. I would feel a temptation rise within me and ask, Why not?

This is the same kind of feeling that rose up in Eve in the Garden of Eden. All of the trees in the garden God gave them to eat of, with the exception of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; that tree they were forbidden to eat of, but we know what happened later. The serpent tempted Eve, making her ask the question, “Why not?” in her mind, eventually leading her to sin.

Genesis 3:1-6 “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

For God doth know that in that day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” 

So you see, she knew that they weren’t to eat of the tree. She said so herself. Yet the serpent convinced her that it was okay to do, and she ate of the tree anyway. She did what she knew she wasn’t supposed to do. 

It is the rebellious nature in our flesh that causes this. “Don’t do this,” “I’m gonna do it anyway.” It is a war in your mind. One side says something is good and okay to do, and the other side says it’s not. You have the Spirit and you have the flesh.

The devil doesn’t want us to follow the Lord or obey His will, and he will do anything he can to cause us to fall to temptation. The devil tried to tempt Jesus in the desert, but Jesus resisted and didn’t falter. He remained strong, and we must strive to do the same. When we hear the voice in our minds saying, “Why not?” we need to shove that voice aside and stay firm in our faith. It’s the carnal person inside us that wants to fall into sin, but if this arises we must do as James wrote in James 4:7,

“Submit yourselves therefore to God, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

Do good, not evil. Listen to the will of the Lord and keep His Word. Remain strong and overcome whenever you hear that voice that says, “Why not?”

We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc  where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods.