Have you heard the story about the little frog and the scorpion?

A frog was at the edge of a river, getting ready to go across the water, when a scorpion approached him.

The scorpion asked, “Friend, would you please allow me to get on your back to cross safely across the water? As you can see, I cannot swim.”

The frog replied, “No, sir. I can’t. If you sting me, I will die.”

The scorpion insisted, and logically explained, “My friend, if I sting you, we will both drown and die.”

This was a good argument. It made sense. The little frog believed the scorpion’s logic and agreed to help him.

Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog on the back. Incredulous, the frog asked, “Why? You promised that you wouldn’t sting me.” As the poison slowly paralyzed the frog, his last words were, “Now we will both drown. Why?”

With his last breath, the scorpion replied, “I can’t help myself. It’s my nature.”

Yes, it’s our nature to lie, to hate, to covet. It’s our nature not to forgive. To hold grudges. To point fingers. To make excuses. To justify our behavior. To be proud. And angry.

When the enemy tempts us, even when we are led to believe that we are doing something good, like helping others, giving of ourselves, Satan will use every opportunity to trick us. To lie to us. To bring us to a place where we are dead on the water. Paralyzed by his poison. Just like the little trusting frog who only wanted to do good.

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. This was Satan’s first lie to humanity. Read it in Genesis 3:1-6. The enemy easily convinced Eve to disobey God’s command not to eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden.

When we put our trust in anything but God, we will fail. Jeremiah 17:5 (NIV) reads, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD”.

You will not surely die.

That lie spoken in the garden is alive and well today. Thousands of years later, we still fall for this lie. You will not surely die.

Yes, we all struggle with our human nature. Our weaknesses. Our addictions. Our pride. Self-pity. Victim-hood. Entitlement. We struggle daily with the temptations flooding our lives from screens to distract us from our goals. And the enemy is there every single second with his poisonous stingers ready to strike when we listen to his lies, “You will not surely die.”

This is about spiritual death. Because the enemy only cares about one thing: Your spirit, and where it will end up.

There are only two paths: God’s path or the enemy’s path. Joshua 24:14-15 says, “Choose Whom You Will Serve”. God gives us all free will. He is not a dictator.

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Choose whom you will serve.

It’s a choice. Let the scorpion take a ride on your back, or trust the Creator of all things to scoop you from the water before you get stung and drown. We will fall for temptation if we are not covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins on the Cross. Because we can’t fight this invisible war with our logic. With our intelligence. With our physical or emotional strength. We cannot win this struggle on our own.

Only Jesus Christ can fight for us. The only one the enemy cannot defeat is Jesus Christ, our Father, our God, the Holy Spirit in our lives.

There is only one antidote for the venom injected in our lives by the enemy: The blood of Jesus Christ.

This is how the enemy works in our minds: It’s our nature. We can’t change. It’s how we were created, right?

We can’t change ourselves, that’s true. There is no therapy. No drugs. No rituals. Nothing can change our nature. Only God can change us.

Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”.  When we are in Christ, He radically transforms us through His righteousness. He transforms us. We are new creations in Him.

Only by giving our lives to the God of the universe. Believing that He was born of a Virgin, died on the cross for our sins, resurrected on the third day to give us Eternal Life. Only. That is all it takes. Believe, and you shall be saved.

When we come to Christ, he makes us a new Creation in Him. His Holy Spirit indwells in us. He saves us from certain death. He pulls up from the pit. The muddy pit at the bottom of the river. He resurrects us. He gives us the antivenom: His precious blood shed on the cross over two thousand years ago. He paid the price. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Only Jesus Christ can pull us up from the rushing waters. Only He can give us the breath of eternal life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Not the life of this corrupted world, but eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:31-39

More Than Conquerors

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake, we face death all day long;
    We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”