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We have been designed by God to follow Him. He placed within us a desire to worship Him. However, Satan takes what God means for good and twists it. For instance, Satan used Scripture to tempt Jesus to sin. However, Jesus quoted Scripture to combat Satan and cut through his lies. Putting Scripture to memory in your mind and heart is one of the best ways to be on the attack against Satan’s wiles.

Satan can make sin look so appealing sometimes. From the earliest days of the world, Satan has twisted the truth to try to draw mankind away from God. He convinced Adam and Eve in the Garden that the forbidden fruit was appealing and harmless. They succumbed to his conniving ways and chose to disobey God, introducing sin into the world.

God told Adam from which tree he should avoid eating fruit and informed him of the consequences he would receive if he sinned against God. He gave Adam and Eve free will.

Did you spot the morsel of wisdom there?

In that little story, God showed us an incredible lesson in being a godly parent. He showed us that we should not force our children to obey. As Ephesians instructs, we should not exasperate our children.

I can imagine that students reading this right now are thinking, “Sweet! See? We can do anything we want.” Well, yes, that is true, but there is a catch: We must face the consequences of our actions.

As parents, we need to teach our children that there are consequences to our actions, just as God taught Adam and Eve. In fact, the human race is still reaping incredible strife from the choice they made to disobey God . . . but don’t blame them. We would have done the same thing.

Students, I know that consequences of bad decisions can hurt and are painful for a time, but discipline is not meant to be enjoyable. It is meant to teach us what we should and should not do. By accepting the consequences of our actions, we learn personal responsibility. We learn to mature and stop being children. I understand that, as a student, you want to feel and be treated like an adult. I know I did. Keep in mind, however, that it is a painful — but rewarding — path in learning to be a responsible adult and to live a godly life pleasing to our Lord.

Here are my challenges to you: Start to become observant of Satan’s temptations — when he twists the truth to try to draw you away from obeying God. Begin memorizing Scripture and storing it away in your heart. That way, when Satan does tempt you and twists the Word of God, you, like Jesus, will be ready to attack with the truth of God’s Word. However, when you do give in to Satan’s bidding, as we all do at times, stand up and accept the consequences of your decision. Not only will you be less inclined to make the same mistake again, but you will also be stepping toward a godly life of obedience as an adult. Something all of us adults still need to work on every single day with the help of the Holy Spirit.

For further reading, check out these Scripture passages:

Hebrews 5:11–6:6
1 Peter 4:1–19
Ephesians 6:1–4
Proverbs 22