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May 16, 2026 06:00am

Always Fighting the Curse

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One day last week, I was in one of those “places” where I was overly tired physically, and there was a lot going on, and the day just required a lot of emotional energy, spiritual clarity, and attentiveness. By the end of the day, I was just wiped out and on the verge of tears. In an effort to comfort and encourage me, my husband listened as I recounted all the things that were wearing on me, and the poor man probably was feeling overwhelmed himself by the end of it. So, to summarize my story and wrap up this venting session, I said, “You know what the problem is? It’s that I’m always fighting the curse!” And the truth is, we are all always fighting the curse. This statement is more accurate than any of us really take time to consider.

So, after a good night’s sleep, I began to ponder this more and consider all the things that truly were impacted by the curse. As I read through Genesis 2–3, the first thing I noticed was that Adam and Eve, immediately after they sinned, became uncomfortable with how God had formed them and found ways to cover their bodies. This covering is also indicative of shame, particularly when you pair it with the fact that Adam and Eve hid from God, with whom they had a close and intimate relationship prior to this. In this moment in Scripture, we get a picture of our own struggles with being dissatisfied with God’s design. Whether this is dissatisfaction with His design of our own bodies, our personalities, or the personality of another person, it is all a result of the curse. We also see that sin created shame and impacts our ability to sustain intimate relationships with both God and others. It’s hard to imagine a world without shame and without conflict, but I have to tell you, I would like to try it out! Our current culture seems to thrive on shame and conflict, so I think it’s very important that when we are watching these things play out in our lives or the lives of those around us, we understand this is part of the curse and worth fighting to overcome in our own hearts and relationships.

I also notice that even the first man who sinned, like us, had a hard time accepting responsibility for his own choices and actions. I cannot count the number of times that, in helping people resolve problems, it boils down to someone—or more than one person in the relationship—being unwilling to take responsibility or even admit they made a wrong or hurtful choice, even if it was not their intention to do so.

There is one small phrase in Genesis 3:14, when God is talking to the serpent, that is really easy to overlook. God says, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field.” I find this intriguing because He is telling us that even all the animals were impacted by the curse that sin brought on the world. When I am trying to get my animals on the farm to cooperate and do what I need them to do, I think about this and feel very satisfied that this is true, I might add. Prior to this, Adam apparently had no trouble getting the animals to parade by him so he could name them because they were under God’s hand and submitted to His design.

Part of God’s design for both man and beast originally is wrapped up in one sentence from God in Genesis 1:28 when He said to “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” For both mankind and beasts, multiplication to fill the earth in obedience to God’s mandate is now filled with pain and sorrow. Not only this, but the natural order of God’s design, where mankind was set in dominion over other creatures, would no longer work as it once did.

As part of the curse, there is also the spiritual battle that is ongoing between good and evil in our own hearts as well as in hearts across the world. This battle wages in both the spiritual and physical realms. In verse 15 of Genesis 3, God describes it as a war between “the serpent (Satan) and the woman and between Satan’s seed and her Seed.” While Satan does battle in the hearts of mankind to continually draw people away from God, Jesus—as the Seed of the woman—has delivered the fatal blow to the “head” of Satan when He paid the penalty for the sins of the world on the cross of Calvary. Revelation 12:12 declares a woe to the inhabitants of the earth because Satan “has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has only a short time.”

You see, Satan knows that if he can draw us away from God, he gains victory in making us ineffective at giving God the glory He deserves and ineffective in reaching others with the gospel of Jesus Christ to increase God’s kingdom. But Satan is very angry because he knows the ultimate victory has already been won, and the time when that victory will culminate in the destruction of all that remains cursed—and the creation of a new heaven and a new earth where sin can no longer enter—is coming.

So, as you fight against the curse when weeding your garden, solving conflict with your spouse, trying to train your pet, or fighting the jealous spirit within you, I encourage you to let it remind you of two things:

If you’re fighting against the curse, it puts you on God’s side of this battle, and that’s the best possible place to be.
The victory over that curse has already been secured, and the rewards and rest are yet to come.

So, keep fighting the curse!