When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Mark 8:34-37 NKJV
We have an enemy who is aware of our desire for stuff. He baits us at every turn, even offering to give it to us if we will only turn against our Creator. God allowed this enemy to enter the Garden of Eden and change everything if he could convince Adam and Eve to use their freewill to disobey what God had told them not to do. The enemy was successful. Did God then wash His hands of us all? No. But there has been a fight for our souls ever since. Those of us who follow Christ will not walk into the Kingdom of God without some battle scars, as may have been the case in the absence of that first sin. We will walk in believing that God rules over all He has made. We will walk in holding up our crosses with our souls still in tact and filled with devotion to and love for our Heavenly Father. We will then be free to ask why He made it happen this way if we still care to know.
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