Friday, July 15, 2016

What Did God Say?

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
Genesis 3:1-3 (NKJV)

Good communication is wonderful and miscommunication can cause problems.  Communication is more than the words we speak, it is also how we say those words and our intention behind them.  It is important to be clear with what we say and it is equally important that we understand what was said.  Reflective Listening is a communication method that involves the person listening repeating back to the speaker what they believe was just said to make sure the message was clearly understood.  This can be a good way to make sure that what was said and what was heard are the same so that there is no miscommunication.

Most people know the story of Adam and Eve and how the serpent talked to Eve.  It is interesting to see how a misunderstanding of what God had actually said created such a huge problem.  We can see the strategy of the devil, who was speaking through the serpent, as he worked to deceive Eve by questioning what God had said.  But, the real problem started when Eve, who should have known better, misquoted what God had said and how even Adam who was there with Eve did not correct the misquote.  Unfortunately, today people are still misunderstanding and misquoting what God has said and creating problems.

The importance of accurately understanding what God has said cannot be overstated.  Sometimes people talk about what they say comes from the Bible but it is either a misunderstanding of what God has said or not something God ever actually said!  We put ourselves and others in great danger spiritually and even naturally when we misrepresent what God has said.  We need to be sure we know what God has really said and not just what our interpretation of what He said is.  A steady, continual diet of reading and studying God's Word is the way to combat this problem.  Rightly understanding what God has said will help us and the people around us.

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