Not Taking the Bait

Scriptures: Genesis 3:4-6, Genesis 1:27, Isaiah 14:12-15

What would Eve’s story have become if she hadn’t listened to the voice of the enemy persuading her to experience something different? 

To want something more than what she had? 

To experience something that wasn’t intended for her? 

We can speculate the obvious about how our lives would be different, but how would her story have been different had she not given in to the first bait of Satan, coveting? 

I want to take you back to a moment that you may be familiar with in biblical history. Instead of looking at the event, I want you to consider the person. Eve was the first and only woman to live in and experience a world without the sins of jealousy, envy, or comparison. The only voice she’d ever heard whisper into her ear was her husband, Adam, because God had not yet spoken directly to her. 

Then along came Satan, a new voice. He knew about God’s command to Adam, and he knew God’s voice. It was a voice he despised from the Creator he hated. In fact, it was the same voice that expelled him from heaven for believing that he could make himself “like the Most-High” (Isaiah 14:14 KJV). Coveting. Satan was the original creator of this bait and believed it would be useful in convincing the very creature that was made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) to fall. 

Satan took the bait that caused his destruction and presented it to Eve, as seen in Genesis 3:4-5 (ESV): 

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

But what happens next is the catalyst that leads to compromise: 

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6 ESV) 

She saw a delight that she desired. The oldest and most effective trick in the book for historical and modern-day believers: 

See 

Delight 

Desire 

The word coveting in the Hebrew and Greek means to desire, to lust, or to long for. Those three words (see, delight, desire) are subtle signs that coveting may be on the horizon in our hearts, and when they are not surrendered to God, they can become spiritual trip hazards. 

So what does this mean for us? 

We will explore that answer tomorrow. For now, I invite you to begin to pray that God will reveal to you over the next couple of days any areas of covetousness that Satan has presented to you.

Scriptures: Psalms 37:4, Exodus 20:17

Someone once said, “We become what we behold.” 

Have you ever been scrolling on social media and come across a post that pricks your heart in an unhealthy way? 

Maybe you see an old classmate that is traveling the world with the company that she owns while you sit behind a desk, typing away for someone else’s profit. 

Or maybe you see the March to December weight loss journey of an old co-worker, and you find yourself looking up fast ways to lose weight prompted by their weight loss journey. 

Or perhaps you watch the celebratory moment that a family member experienced and you find yourself unable to genuinely celebrate with her, but you don’t know why. 

Masked as disappointment, jealousy, entitlement, or even “fairness,” the world has created glorified names for the sin of covetousness, making it easier to camouflage the severity of the obvious battle within. We reason, justify, and, at times, become internally antagonistic toward the people whose worlds we desire to be in, although they would never know. The truth is that when we choose to call sin anything other than what the Bible calls it, we tend to fall deeper into sin’s hole rather than being freed from its hold. The word stings because sin stings. 

The thing about God is that He knows what’s brewing under the surface of our hearts. He knows that lust of the eyes can lead to many unexposed and unsurrendered desires. 

The sin of coveting is more common and more discreet than we could ever imagine. It’s a subtle sin with an eternal implication. 

Eve showed us this! 

When we want to have and to know more than what God has given us, our desires can become a playground for pitfalls. 

However, had Eve shared with God her discontentment, her questioning about the tree, and her lack of understanding of His command, she may have been met with a voice of wisdom and truth rather than the voice of deception and lies. 

Sinful, unexposed thoughts become sin-filled actions. 

What is the solution? 

Well, there are actually three solutions that we see in the Bible: 

1. Confession 
2. Repentance 
3. Contentment 

When we choose to confess our thoughts, emotions, and desires to God, He reveals which ones are sinful and which are sanctified. Then we can repent for the sin so that its hold will be released. 

The Bible tells us in Psalm 37:4 to “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (ESV). Our first task is to delight in Him. That delight shapes the desires He will give us. As soon as Satan stopped delighting in the Lord, he became a pawn for evil through covetousness. 

Today, we talked about confession and repentance. Tomorrow I am going to share a little story with you. 

Before we go, I want to invite you to pause and pray. If God has been revealing areas of covetousness within you, take a moment to repent and ask for His forgiveness. He is your Heavenly Father; He is ready and willing to forgive and restore you.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:9

“I want to be an actress. Can you talk to David A.R. White for me?” I heard my daughter yell from the other room in response to her sister explaining to their Papa that I would be speaking at an event with the well-known producer and actor. 

In mid-explanation, my younger daughter stopped and yelled, “Me too! I want to be an actress too!” 

Suddenly, the two of them started bickering back and forth. 

As I stood near the front door to leave, I decided to pause. 

Both of my children were very gifted. One in acting and one in singing. My older daughter, who loved acting, had fully embraced this talent and looked for any opportunity she could to share her gift with the world. My younger daughter was shy and often steered away from anything that had to do with singing unless it was inside the house. Her sudden interest in acting shocked and annoyed her older sister. 

I understood how both of them felt, and I paused for a second to reassure both girls that God was going to make room for them to operate in their unique gifts. 

However, I took an extra moment for my younger daughter to remind her of how important it was to steward the gift that God had given her so that He could bless her abilities in a special way. I reminded her that we didn’t want to put her gift of singing on the shelf so that she could pick up her sister’s gift of acting. I wanted her to understand that stewardship and contentment are kingdom keys that unlock many doors. 

I find myself having this conversation with my children more and more often. As video-streaming channels with kids and parent vloggers tend to be the new reality TV. I have noticed that this form of entertainment tends to lure them into coveting. Youth want a parent who sits and plays video games all day or travels the world to fun places every other week. They are less and less content with the idea of being in a warm home with a loving family whose every move isn’t on display for the world. 

Our world has become more covetous than ever before, and the sneaky bait seeps into our homes and hearts without warning. But, dear brothers and sisters, let us all be reminded that contentment and stewardship are two kingdom keys that will unlock doors! If we are stewarding well what God has entrusted to us, we will not have time to desire what He has entrusted to another. We may see and celebrate it, but we won’t sin over it. 

So today, let’s begin our journey of contentment as God unfolds His master plan for our lives!