A Special Hatred

Captivating - Chapter 5 - A Special Hatred begins by talking about an assault on our hearts which leaves us with a feeling like everything is our fault.  It’s that…I’m too much or not enough way of thinking.

Why is it we don’t believe good things about us?  Why can’t we believe we have some positive attributes?  Why is it we can’t take a compliment without some how downplaying it?

Well, ever since the fall of Eve we have been under attack.

To help figure out why, let’s take a look at Genesis 3:14-16 which contains part of the sentencing in response to the first sin.

We’ll start with verse 14:
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.

God told Lucifer – he was cursed!  Not only cursed but was deemed lower than the animals! Cursed to crawl on his knees or walk hunched over, but to crawl on his belly!  His belly!  And eating dust?  How disgusting is that?  Not even the lowest of low would eat dirt!  So there was Lucifer, the epitome of perfect beauty…living in the most glorious way…banished to a horrific eternity.  His pride was his downfall and it cost him everything.

God continues to sentence Lucifer in verse 15:
15 And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

en•mi•ty is defined as:  the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.
Synonyms:  hostility, animosity, antagonism, friction, antipathy, animus, acrimony, bitterness, rancor, resentment, aversion, ill feeling, bad feeling, ill will, bad blood, hatred, hate, loathing, odium; malice, spite, spitefulness, venom, malevolence

So God told Lucifer that he was going to hate, loath and be hostile against women.  That he would always be nipping on the heels of mankind.  Is it any wonder we always feel like something is wrong with us?

God also said that our children and Lucifer's children would always be in conflict with one another.  So there's Lucifer nipping at our heels like a little yappy dog.  And there's us crushing his head...venom lies within the head of the serpent.  It's a never ending constant battle...constant struggle...constant torment.

Next God sentences Eve in verse 16:
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

Say what?  Our lives our going to be filled with pain and sorrow?  And that when we give birth to something (a child, hopes, dreams, ideas) that it will always be painful.  Really?  And that we will always be humbled by our husbands (dad/boyfriend/men in our life).  That what we desire will be left to be confirmed by him and at his mercy.  

Like the book states, Satan has had a role in either what has happened to us or how we tend to view ourselves.

What do you suppose is God’s reasoning for sentencing us to pain and sorrow and constant attack from Satan?  He longs for us to love him.  He longs for us to turn to him.  He is pursuing us so that we will love him with all our hearts and all our minds and all our souls.

Satan plagues us with either ideas or things that put feelings of shame, doubt, abandonment in our heads.  The more those lies circle around in our heads, the more we believe them.

We need to stop the negative chatter in our heads and replace it with God’s word and promises to us. We need to remember that we are made in his image.  That we are loved and pursued by God.  That we are his top priority.  That he will never leave us or forsake us.  That we are chosen.  That we are beautiful.  That we are His!

Isaiah 46:4
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

One final thought…God made us and God is never wrong.