If you will change the way you perceive things, your entire experience will change. At this very moment, you have immeasurable goodness and blessings in your life, however if you’re not intentionally recognizing them, they go unnoticed.

The enemy has been working overtime on your perception. What is your perception? By definition it is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through your senses. He has you so overstimulated with all the distractions of your noisy world, that you’re numb to the constant quiet presence of God. You’re chasing without recognizing you already have what you think you still want.

You and I are much like Eve. Eve lived in literal paradise. Every day was pure delight. She had never needed or wanted for anything. In one moment, the enemy came in and messed with her perception. He changed the way she saw her paradise. With one little twisted suggestion, he made her want the one thing that was never meant for her.

Genesis 3 in my bible is titled “Paradise Lost.” How was paradise lost for Adam and Eve? How did the enemy trick them, and is he tricking us still today?

Verse 1-13 ” The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man[a] and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

“Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

The serpent was the devil, our enemy, and he tricked Eve. Notice verse 6 says “The woman was convinced.” She was convinced what she had wasn’t good enough. She was convinced what she couldn’t have would be better.

The truth is, today we have little pieces of paradise, immeasurable goodness and blessings, and if we’re not careful, we too can be tricked into the enemy’s twisted plan. Tricked into trading all we have already been given, for what we think would be better. Where has the enemy been trying to convince you?

You have a husband, but you think a different husband would be better. Oh, Sis, be so careful. Is that the enemy trying to convince you into overlooking all you have and make you want what is not yours?

You have a house, but that house is already not good enough.
You have clothes, but Amazon and Shein surely has something you must have.
You have family, but Facebook shows you a better family and suddenly yours doesn’t look as good.
You have the job you once prayed for, but now you dread getting up to go to that job.
You were saved from God only knows what, healed from diseases you didn’t even know were a threat, and now you look at your body in the mirror with harsh and unloving eyes.
There are people who have poured into you, now your expectations of the continual pouring have made you bitter towards them.
Your prayers were answered and you have what you asked for, but now your blessings have become a burden and you just want a break from it all.

You have been convinced. Convinced what you don’t have is what you need. Convinced what you can’t do is what is still missing in your life. Convinced if you could just change this one thing, then life would be good. But the truth is, honey, we’re just like the woman we came from. We are about 120 generations from Eve, and we’re still struggling with the same exact thing. We’re losing paradise.

If absolutely nothing changed in our lives but our perception, most everything would change. You and I could receive the same exact thing, but the difference in our perception would create a radically different outcome. Here’s how ….

Every single one of us received a new day of life today. It’s the great equalizer. No matter where you live, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, you received 24 hours today, just like me. But, how you received today from the moment you woke up has changed your entire experience.

If Monday is greeted with a sense of anxiety, overwhelm, and dread, then those senses create your perception. Proof of every reason to be anxious, overwhelmed and filled with dread flood your awareness. With this perception, your energy levels respond, your mood aligns, and you show up to today looking for proof of what you suspected from the moment you woke up. And sis, “seek and ye shall find.” You will find it!

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Just because the enemy points it out to you doesn’t mean you have to be convinced. Just because the temptation is there doesn’t mean you have to take a bite. Honey, paradise is here for you today, you don’t want to lose this!

You can literally train your brain to dwell in gratitude. You can direct your thoughts toward the proof of paradise, and if you do, your entire experience will be different. You will be so convinced of your blessings, that the enemy’s offer of burdens simply has no space to dwell. You can be so focused on the immeasurable goodness in your life, that the lure of what you still don’t have is completely overshadowed.

Eve’s mistake was allowing the enemy to trick her into believing what she didn’t have would be better than what she already had. Oh, Eve, you live in paradise, but if you take a bite from this one forbidden tree, you will be even happier in paradise. WRONG!

You and I woke up to the promise of God’s mercies being brand new today. We woke up to a world held perfectly in the palm of God’s mighty hand. We woke up to more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine being miraculously aligned for us.

But, if our perception is off, we woke up to another reason to be offended. We woke up to something that is totally unfair. We woke up to work we have to do with people we just want to change. And Sis, we become bitter! Bitter women, living little lives, teaching the next generation to do the same.

And this perception has become our reality.

God is all around us, but we no longer perceive it. It’s all being made possible, but we’re not stepping into it. We’re wildly rich and ridiculously blessed, but we don’t feel like it.

We have been convinced.

Convinced people are bad, so we miss just how good the souls around us really are.
Convinced we don’t get what we want, so we miss we already have so much of what we wanted.
Convinced life isn’t fair, so we miss how darn lucky we are that we don’t really get what we deserve.
Convinced this is too hard, so we miss the unstoppable power we have been offered.

No, Satan, you will not convince me. You will not cause this girl to lose the paradise she already has!

Life is good and I’m preparing for an eternal future of perfection.
People are good because they carry Jesus in them.
Here is good because I know all God brought me through to get me here, and I know he’s not finished with me yet.
Today is good because this the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it, regardless of circumstances.

This paradise is protected with a mind set on the immeasurable goodness and blessings I already have!

Genesis 3:23 “So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.”

We woke up in our garden this morning. A garden that may not be perfect and we may not have it all, but dang girl, look at all we do have. Let’s not be banished from our garden because of our jacked up perception. Let us not be convinced by the enemy’s tricks which twist our blessings into burdens.

I’m here in my garden this morning, and I’m so grateful. Aren’t you? With the right perspective, it really is paradise.

Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com