Would You Rather: Belief vs. Trust

Flood Zone Recap
June 3, 2007

Would you rather:

Eat peanut M&M's or plain M&M's?
Chew used gum under a park bench, or eat a piece of bread out of a trash can?
Swim with sharks or alligators?
Shave your head or dye your hair pink?
Eat a nose booger or an eye booger?
Trust Satan or Trust God?

The quick "church" response is obviously trust God, but do our actions really bare that out? Do we really trust God more than we trust Satan? Are we more willing to run after what God's spirit it telling us to do or what Satan is tempting us to do, in the little things AND the big things?

Let's look at some thing we know about God and about Satan:

God: hears our prayers, provides for our needs, knows our thoughts, thinks about us regularly, cares for us, directs our paths, has a purpose for us, forgives our sins, protects us, created us, is perfect, is all knowing, is all powerful, is ever present, cannot lie. In a nutshell, God is TRUSTWORTHY!

Satan: deceives us, wants to destroy us, wants to steal our joy, wants to kill our witness, tempts us, lies to us, tricks us, hates God. In a nutshell, Satan is NOT TRUSTWORTHY!

So, with all that we say that we believe about God, why don't we trust him more? And with all we say that we believe about Satan, why do we still trust him?

Because so often, belief does not translate into trust. Why? Because Satan is real good at getting us to doubt what we believe about God.

In Genesis 3:1-7 is a story that is familiar to most of us. It is the starting point of the struggle against sin that we fight every day. It is the fall of man into sin. It is the first time that man trusted Satan instead of trusting God. So, how did Satan get man to trust him? By getting man to doubt God. But, what did Satan get Adam and Eve to doubt about God? How does he convince us to doubt God and trust him?

1. Satan attacks our belief about God's goodness. (v1) Satan basically says, "What, God isn't going to provide for your hunger? Look at all these trees, and you can't eat the fruit from them?" While this was a lie, it still starts to bring up this thought: "yeah. Why can't I eat this fruit. If the other fruit is good for me, the why can't I eat this? Is God really a good God if he won't let me eat this tasty looking fruit?"

2. Satan attacks our belief about God's Truth. (v4-5) Satan convinced Eve that God has not been completely honest. That God is holding something back. That God wants to keep them from being all they can be. While we know this isn't true, and we say that we believe God has our best intrests in mind, still we run after what Satan says will make us great in the eyes of man.

See, Satan hasn't changed the core of his tricks. He's still tricking us the same way he tricked Adam and Eve. He's still encouraging us to doubt what we say we believe about God. In that way, he keeps us from living out the trust that we know we need to have in God.

What about you? What belief about God is Satan attacking in your life? How are are you going to fight back? Ephesians 6:16 encourages us to weild the sheild of faith to knock down the arrows of deception that are flying our way.

Trust God fully this week. Don't just say that you believe in Him and what he says he is, but trust it, with your life. Your trust of God will be evident in the way that you live our your beliefs.

Trust God fully and see if he doesn't prove himself GOOD & TRUE!