Devotion
The voice comes before the fruit
“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1
Before anyone eats anything, somebody starts talking.
The serpent does not open with a command, and he does not open with a lie you could argue with. He opens with a question. God had given them every tree in the garden except one, and this question makes that sound stingy. It plants a thought: something good is being kept from you.
Practice
Pay attention to your own inner monologue today. Not the loud thoughts. The quiet ones that sound like plain fact. “You always do this.” “You will never change.” “Nobody would stay if they knew.” Write down the one you hear most often, in your own words, in the first person. You cannot fight a voice you have never put on paper.
Prayer
Lord, I have been listening to a voice that is not Yours and calling it my own thinking. Give me ears to tell the difference. When that sentence shows up today, help me notice it instead of believing it. Amen.