All tagged temptation
I have been contemplating the instruction that Jesus gave his apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He went to pray. Specifically, I am dwelling on the account as recorded in the book of Luke. Jesus told Peter and the brothers to pray in order to fend off temptation. What was it about that moment and place that would heighten temptation?
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...
Do you trust God enough to allow yourself to be used unconditionally to accomplish His good will? Do you believe that He brings bad situations upon you, or, do you believe He uses you amidst bad situations for His good purposes? These are questions that can influence, or define our faith.
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?
Do you move along in your life of faith and feel like you are making great strides in sanctity only to have some trivial thing reawaken the old sinful person you used to be? Well, we all do, and our lives of faith are a constant struggle against our natural selves... so what can we do to overcome this?
Who do we live for? Who have we chosen above ourselves? These are the questions I am contemplating this morning. I am thinking about the spiritual aspect of these questions, but also upon the impact that our life choices have on who, or what, we value as well. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote these words...
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.
As Christians we are not immune to temptation, and though we resolve in our spirits, and minds, that we will follow Jesus, our bodies are still made of dust… a substance of the world. In this way our flesh is weak, and it is only by the faithfulness of God that we are helped to resist the powerful temptation of sin, and provided escape from it. This is not to say that we are destined to be lost, but that we would most certainly be so without the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the grace of God. Our bodies are not unlike others of the world, so a Christian is tempted just as the unbelievers, yet we have hope, redemption, forgiveness, and look forward to a glorified body. In these promises we are spiritually strengthened, armed, and transformed. Are we prepared to stand against temptation when it comes?
Do we tolerate sin, even those that we feel are insignificant, and allow them to remain in us? When we let the smallest of sins hover over us, or make its home within us without addressing it, and casting it out, what effect does it have on us as a whole? When we allow it to go without feeling remorseful, contrite, and asking for forgiveness, then we suffer physically, mentally, emotionally, and most of all spiritually.
As we live out our lives we find that we struggle day and night to reach, and then to maintain ourselves, in purity, and righteousness. Thankfully, we continue to grow in our maturity, and find ourselves strengthened all the more in our faith, and the maintenance of it, but let there be no doubt that even the spiritually aged, with all their knowledge and wisdom, still wrestle with the world for control of their souls. So how is it that the babies, and the young people in faith can dare hope to keep their way pure if their elders are struggling?
We can sin in so many ways, but none as easily, and completely as by the sins of our flesh. These sins are so natural to us, and fit closely with similar inclinations that we have received as gifts from God. It is in this way that we can find ourselves fooled by Satan, and caught up in them. The desire to make love to your spouse is a close cousin to your sinful desire to commit adultery. The need to protect your family isn’t too far removed from such things as jealousy, fits of anger, or even murder. We walk a fine line when it comes to our flesh, and that line is no broader than the width of our faith.