From Have to Have Not

I have a cute house. Nothing fancy, but a very decent house in a very decent neighborhood. Know what I don’t have? Nice carpet.

I have a cute truck. I’d been wanting one for years and now I have one and I love it to death. But it doesn’t have the back up screen, so I have to twist myself around to see what’s behind me when I’m backing up.

I’m kind of smart, but I don’t have a degree. I’m a writer, but I’m not published (yet). I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, but I’m not very tall, or thin, or…

Do you see my problem? My haves always lead to my have nots. But I’m not the first.

Genesis. First chapters. God made everything, called it good, gave it all to the man and the woman, which He had also created. He told them they could have it all, gave them dominion and told them to make lots of babies (be fruitful and multiply – same thing). To everything, He said yes, except for one thing. One tree.

And then chapter three happened. The devil came, as the devil always does. Here is that conversation –

“He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

First, he asked a question that was a lie. God never said they couldn’t eat from any tree, He said they couldn’t eat from one tree. So he drew the woman into the conversation by giving her something to correct.

Then, he contradicted God and made Him out to be a liar, planting the seed that He was withholding from her.

And finally, she saw the tree as something it was not – good for her. It took one conversation with the enemy to convince her that something deadly was something good (and boy ain’t that a sermon for another day). And in all of this, I see one important thing that relates to this conversation we’re having today.

The devil shifted the woman’s focus from her have, to her have not. From God, to herself. And he has never changed his methods, because why change what works?

So now I’m trying to take my focus back. To enter my home with a thankful heart rather than a critical eye. To look around in wonder at the many ways God has blessed me and refuse to believe He has held back from me anything that is good. To trust that if He hasn’t given me something, then it would not be good for me to have it. I’m trying to shift my gaze off of me and back to Him because that is how I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. By actually seeing His goodness, instead of seeing what I don’t have.

Who we are, what we have been given, it is abundantly good, until the enemy is able to shift our focus from have to have not.

Don’t let him do that. Fight back. Be thankful. Trust His goodness.