Just a lil' ole piece of fruit....

I've been thinking about temptation, and why it seems like we can do good and be in control of so many other areas, but the food seems to be, for many of us anyway, the ultimate temptation that we aren't victorious over all the time.

Normally I would chalk it up to being human. Sin nature and all. But how about this for a monkey-wrench in the works.... In the Old Testament, and the Creation account, and the Fall of Man, Eve took the food that God had forbidden them to eat, and she ate it. She did not have a sin nature at the time. Yet she ate it anyway, because "it was pleasing to the eye", and of course she had been deceived by the serpent, who told her that God wanted to deprive them of it because it would open their eyes and make them wise.  He managed to convince her that they would NOT die if they ate it.  And we all know what happened next! 

SO. It seems, my ladies, that we have an unusual and ancient pre-disposition toward eating "forbidden fruit!" It is tantalizing. It looks good. Sometimes we can't seem to muster the strength of resolve to run the other way when it beckons. It is pleasing to the eye, and then our inner voice takes over and rationalizes it as something "not so bad, won't kill us, blah blah blah...."  How often do we double-talk ourselves into eating something we absolutely know is off-limits for our health and our goals, and something that may even *gulp* kill us. What Eve did is a literal example of what we face every day. Because she at the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree, she invited a literal death on the whole human race. (Yeah, thanks, by the way.) But how often do we look at something and say "oh, it's JUST a ding-dong" or "oh, it's JUST a little ice-cream cone, how much can it hurt, REALLY?" I wonder if Eve said that about that lil' ole piece of fruit?

I think food is an issue that is doubly hard to deal with, but it does not negate God's promise that there is NO temptation that will overtake us to where He will not provide an avenue of escape. We just tend not to look real hard for that avenue of escape when it comes to food.  I'm sure there were plenty of garden paths in Eden that led AWAY from that tree.  But I do note that Eve didn't take ANY of them.

So next time we think "Oh it's only a lil' piece of fruit!", remember Eve!  =)