By Staci Stallings

The other day it occurred to me that God is like a lot of parents who want to keep their children safe because they know the dangers inherent in this world. So think about the parent who is in the kitchen with her child toddling around. The child gets close to the stove where Mommy is heating supper.

“No. No,” Mommy says. “Don’t touch. Hot!”

Wide-eyed the child looks up at her and nods. Thinking the child surely understands that “hot” equals “it will hurt you,” the mother continues preparing until she hears the child wailing uncontrollably.

Why?

Because the child just touched that hot stove of course!

Now consider this, not altogether different, scenario. God is in the Garden with his children, and He tells them, “You can have the whole garden to play in, just don’t eat from this one tree.”

Why? Because God knows the everlasting pain it will cause His children. Then He goes back to doing His God things leaving his children to play in the garden.

I guarantee the same thing happens next. Satan shows up, knowing that the tree just like the hot stove will cause pain, and wanting the children to be in pain. So what does he do?

“Did God really say…?” “I bet Mom’s just trying to ruin my fun.” “God just knows if you do it you’ll be like Him….” “Mom uses that stove all the time, why can’t I? I’m going to try it.”

Our problem is not with the thing that causes pain. Our problem is not listening to the One Who has our best interest at heart!

We start listening instead to that little voice in us that says we don’t have to listen to authority, that they don’t know what they are talking about, that we know better.

Think about how many times this scenario is played out in our lives. First it’s the stove or the stairs. Then climbing that tree, putting that rock in our ear, or the car in gear. Then it’s riding the ATV too fast or driving at night alone when you are only supposed to drive during the day with an adult present. Then it’s taking our friends for rides in that car and sneaking out to be with someone we know Mom and Dad don’t approve of.

As we get older, we kind of transfer our transgressions from not obeying Mom and Dad to not obeying God. We sleep in on Sundays because who’s going to know. We start hanging out with the “fun” crowd, drinking and doing other things that don’t make us feel very good in the morning.

Oh, and sometimes, instead of being content with what we have, we start becoming materialistic–wanting cars we can’t afford and other status-symbols to impress our friends and make us feel “accepted” and “worthy.”

The amazing thing is that at some point we all realize we are hurting and miserable. When the pain shows up, what do we do? We blame the very Person Who warned us against doing all of that stupid stuff in the first place!

Remember this, no matter if you are 2 or 92, Satan has a plan for you, and it is for your ultimate pain and destruction. He is going to lie to you and manipulate you, and do whatever he has to in order to convince you to touch that hot stove. So if you are inclined to not take God at His word that doing so will hurt you, I strongly suggest never letting God take His eyes off of you. Latch onto Him and don’t let go!

God really does have great plans for you–to prosper you and not to harm you, but you have to be willing to take Him at His word that that stove is HOT and you should not touch it!

Copyright Staci Stallings, 2012

Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a #1 Best Selling Contemporary Christian author and the founder of Grace & Faith Author Connection. You can check out Staci’s newest release…

For Real

Book 3, ~ THE COURAGE SERIES ~

“It will pull you in and touch your heart.”

Blaine Donovan has a secret, but so far his plan to keep the rest of the world in the dark about who he really is and what’s really going on in his life has worked. If he can just finish school before the demons catch up with him, he knows he can make life make sense once again. However, when he runs into Melody Todd, a semi-friend he had thought was long-gone, life takes a turn Blaine wasn’t at all expecting.

Still hurting from watching her best friend marry someone else, Melody Todd has given up on dating, guys, and on herself. In fact, when Blaine shows back up in her life, she does what she always does with the eligible guys who look her way—she sets him up with someone else. But Blaine soon proves to be much different than he at first seems. Too many things are not adding up the way they are supposed to, and the more Melody digs, the more she sees that the Blaine she knows is not the real Blaine at all…

“For Real will show you how you can lay those things that are preventing you from loving Jesus at the foot of the Cross. It will inspire you and give you hope.