What are you tempted by? Are you tempted by the taste of chocolate to eat too much? (That’s me!) Are you tempted to buy things you don’t need, by advertisements promoting the next great thing? Are you tempted to ruin a friendship for a momentary pleasure?
This week’s word is tempt, which literally means being enticed into evil or sin. Ever since the first man and woman on earth committed the first sin, every person alive has been tempted, probably millions of times. Sometimes we are able to make the right choice and resist the temptation, but other times we give in to being tempted.
But who is the one doing all this tempting of mankind? Well, it definitely isn’t God.
James 1:13-14 says, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” You and I are tempted because of our sinful nature. We are human, therefore we are sinful, therefore we are tempted to indulge that sinful nature.
But, temptation can also be used to prove a person’s desire to stay strong for God. I would encourage you to read the entire story of
Job, but especially
chapters 1-2. In this story, a man named Job is tempted by Satan to dishonor God. Throughout all of the catastrophe that happens (which believe me, is way worse than your life!), Job does not give in to the tempting and remains faithful to God.
As in everything, when we are tempted, the example we should strive to be like is that of Jesus. While He was tempted everyday like we are, He also went through an intense period of being tempted early on in His ministry. You can read about it in
Matthew 4:1-11 or
Luke 4:1-13. However, Jesus is different than you or I; He was able to resist every single temptation thrown at Him! We read about this in
Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
What tempts you in your daily life? What can you do to resist that temptation, to live your life for God?
0 comments:
Post a Comment