Cunning and Crafty Attacks

³ But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  
                                                                                            2 Corinthians 11:3

I have often thought of Eve in the garden with Satan.  Thinking, "Eve, how stupid could you be?  How can you not see that he is twisting God's words?" 

¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”                                                                                    Genesis 2:15-17

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
 ⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
 ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
                                                                                                       Genesis 3:1-6

In chapter 3 verse 1,  it calls the serpent the craftiest of any of the wild animals.  I have read that many times and agreed with it wholeheartedly.  However, recently, I have become vividly aware of just how crafty and cunning he can be.  As we entered this journey of adoption, I knew that there would be spiritual warfare.  I think I was naive in my understanding of my role in this war!  I have found myself hearing Satan whisper in my ear, "Does God really want you to go adopt these two little girls?  Surely not.  Just look at you.  You have health issues...You don't do a very good job of taking care of the two children you already have...adding one or two more would destroy everything you already have.  Maybe this is God's way of closing the door."    Even as I write this, it seems absurd to even give one ounce of thought to these statements.  But Satan is so crafty that somehow it makes sense when I hear it.  I have to keep reminding myself that we have prayed about this continually and that many doors have been flung open for us.  Almost to the point, where we feel we have been placed into an Indy Car for this ride and we have the pedal to the metal!  It may be that God allowed this pause because we needed it.

How easy it is to look at someones situation and judge the obvious.  My public apology goes out to Adam and Eve!  I am sorry for judging your decisions with my 20/20 hindsight.

Please continue to pray for our journey.  We have not yet heard anything about the prosecutor and the status of the girls.  As I have said previously, we do not want to get into a battle over these girls if there is a family member that wants to care for them.  So please pray for the right caregiver for the girls and that the right girls will end up in our home.  Also pray that we will resist Satan's cunning and crafty attacks as I know they will only get stronger as we get further into this process.  Our devotion is to Jesus Christ.  Please pray that we will not be led astray from it.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 

                                                                                                  Romans 8:31