All tagged temptation

How loyal are we to our Lord Jesus Christ? Are we inclined to say "absolutely!” but then catch ourselves pausing the television on some terrible show filled with foul language as we are browsing through the channels. Are we really serving God faithfully when such things as this happen, or are we walking a fine line between righteousness and the basic human desires and instincts of the old fallen person we once were?

As Christians are we still tempted to place our earthly needs before our spiritual relationship with God? Do we spend precious time worrying and thinking about worldly things when it would be better spent on the Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father? Do we arm ourselves against temptation with prayer and the Word of God? As I was reading Oswald Chambers this morning he wrote about our temptation in these words...

This morning I would like for us to concentrate on praying against Temptation. My morning reading touched on this topic today when Pastor E.M. Bounds said: "Temptation is really evil arising from the Devil or born in the human nature.", and as I thought on it I realized that Jesus spoke specifically to temptation when he gave us the Lord's Prayer. He didn't talk about Trouble or Trials, yet He certainly dealt with Evil and Temptation specifically.

My morning devotional reading dealt with trouble in our lives and didn't paint a very hopeful picture. It began by saying "trouble is a part of a person's everyday life on earth”, and then concluded with the statement that people who look for sunshine and roses in life "are the people who don't know God, who know nothing of His disciplinary dealings with His people and who are prayerless." Both of these quotes are from Pastor E.M. Bounds and he selected a scripture from Job to accompany them...

When you pray the Lord's Prayer and say the words "lead us not into temptation", what do you think that means? Do you think you are asking God to keep you from experiencing temptation? Do you understand it to mean that you are asking God Himself not to tempt you? Do you think it literally means that God should not purposely lead you into tempting situations? Or, do you feel you are asking God to lead you away from your natural inclination to be tempted and sin?

We see the wicked about us, and they are too proud to believe in God. We watch them succeed in their lives, and some believers are tempted to envy them, but neither the wicked nor those who envy them can see that God’s punishment is at hand. The wicked believe that God is dead, and those who envy believe their behavior is a harmless pursuit. We understand that wickedness is sin, but do we fool ourselves into believing that envy is an innocent endeavor?


If we choose to follow the world over Yahweh the God of Abraham, then the fallen person within us, that we have chosen, will most certainly become who we are once again. Do we seek the false treasures, pleasures, and happiness that the world has to offer us over all that God desires to give us, and to do in our lives? Were we once focused on the Lord, only to have our hearts cool towards Him, and have we turned back towards the easy way, and those things that drove our lives before we first came to know Jesus? Are we no longer adhering to God’s commandments… only seeking what pleases the fallen man, or woman, within us rather than the suffering heart of Jesus that picking up our cross, and following Him requires? Well, God looks for those whose hearts are blameless, and only in Christ can we become pure.

We talk about meeting God in the wilderness, and it is true that this is a holy place where our faith is polished, tested, adjusted, then polished again by the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, but it is also true that Satan woos us there, and does his best to tarnish what God has just made to shine. We must remain at our most vigilant, not when our faith has reached its lowest point, but when it is at its peak, and we have become most pleasing to God. This is where Moses struck the rock, it is where Jesus was tempted, and although not in the desert, it was at the height of his righteousness that Job was tested.