The Garden: Ways to Overcome Fear, Anxiety, and StressSample

THE GARDEN

Turn on the news. Read your social media feed. Have a conversation with your neighbor. As a country, we are divided, and as individuals, we are worried. People are fighting. Marriages are ending. Suicide rates are rising. Many people have lost hope and are giving up.

You can say it’s because of the pandemic, the lockdowns and quarantines, social unrest, uncertainty, and/or unemployment, but the roots to our issues and struggles run much deeper. In most of these situations, it is not our minds that need fixing but our souls that need healing.

As I wrote in my book The Garden, the culprit is Satan. Evil exists, and it seeks to defeat us through the 5 D’s: Doubt, Distortion, Discouragement, Distraction, and Division. Even just reading that list, it’s likely one or two of the D’s stand out as currently causing you challenges.

We need awareness of who our enemy is and an understanding of the weapons he uses. Often we lose the battle because we have no idea we’re even in it. We start fighting back when we acknowledge we are in a spiritual battle. And what’s more - your enemy is well-informed. He knows you are in a battle, and he has a subversive plan to destroy your life.

Many people struggle with this idea - the idea of genuine evil or a formidable enemy. The Bible tells us it was good when God created the world. God’s first human creations, Adam and Eve, lived in perfection. But then something happened.

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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 2:16-17

Adam and Eve choose to believe the enemy’s lies and disobey GOD. When they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they opened the door to evil that had not previously existed—this created division between God and man.

As God’s children, Adam and Eve were like us, created in His image, but the serpent planted seeds of doubt and caused them to forget their identity.

Since Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the garden, there’s a spiritual battle going on between good and evil. We see this happening in the world with killings and shootings, kidnappings, bombings, and other evil acts, and we know the battleground between good and evil begins in our heart, mind, and soul.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. - Ephesians 6:12

The good news is we are not alone in our fight. God created a plan to thwart the enemy and to fix our sin problem when He sent His Son Jesus to be the Savior of the world.

Going Deeper:

Reflect on why it is so important God has given you the freedom of CHOICE. How does this truth encourage you?

Prayer:

Thank God for the truth that even though Adam and Eve sinned and were spiritually separated from God, by grace, you have been saved from spiritual death by the gift of Jesus Christ.