Skip to main content

 TEMPTATION

Truth is, sometime down the road or around the corner, we will find ourselves experiencing the pressure of temptation we may have never know. It’s because we live in a world ruled by sin. There is brokenness in others that can and will impact us. There is still residual brokenness in followers of Jesus (Scripture refers to it as “the flesh”) that tries its best to get us to collude with sin to keep it alive. The insidious lie, that we need something more than God has provided or can provide, is the same demonic presumption used every day by satanic forces since the Garden of Eden.

Temptation is not sin. Internalizing, personalizing the temptation and acting on it, is sin. We will be shocked at what we have the capacity to do. God isn’t shocked. He knows exactly what we are capable of: pride, religiosity, fear, unbelief, lust, greed, rage, murder, gossip, malice, sloth, envy, bitterness, resentment, hatred, theft, sexual sin of all sorts, self-righteousness, unforgiveness and the list could go one and on. When attacked, the first tactic of the demonic, it to try and isolate us, as if no one else had ever had their mind, will and emotions attacked in this way…especially no follower of Jesus.

That is a very useful lie that Satan uses. But we know better.

Hebrews 4:14-16 “14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same temptations we do, yet He did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Think on this. The only One who know the full-bore power and deception of temptation is the One Who has resisted it to the Nth degree. Jesus didn’t just face one or two temptations to rely on something, or someone other than God to supply all His needs, He faced all the temptations that could ever be thrown at a human being and never gave in to them. He was bombarded in ways we have never know, because He never capitulated, never gave in.

Jesus understands our weaknesses, fully understands them because He suffered through all that Satan could throw to get Him to doubt the Father’s love and He stood firm in faith. Jesus knows how to help us, regardless of the attack on mind, will, emotion or body. Because we now belong to Him by grace through faith, we can come to Him with whatever is threatening to crush us and we will find His grace to help us in the time of need.

He never abandons us, ever. In fact, He states that He is near to those in need, those who feel weak and unable to stand. Don’t believe the devils’ lies that your weakness is offensive to God. Jesus fully gets it. That is WHY He came, because we will never be our own salvation to any degree in any context!

Tempted? Run to Jesus. “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same temptations we do, yet He did not sin. “



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  PRAYER Jesus Christ NEVER taught on what we call "unanswered prayer." James wrote that a divided loyalty between trusting the Lord God for life and at the same time relying on the world's systems to get what you want will result in you not getting anything from God you may have prayed about. God will never reinforce the unbelief that flows from divided loyalty. THAT is not unanswered prayer. That is God saying, "No." to your request. God saying, "No." to your requests is not unanswered prayer. It is His grace. His "No" is just what I would want if I knew what He knows. The Lord also answers with, "Not now; not yet." because we are not yet prepared to receive what we think we need. God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. If I am praying for something God wants to do in me and the Holy Spirit is working in me preparing me to receive what God has in store, His "Not yet." is NOT unanswered prayer. As we see...
Post a Comment
Read more
 HEBREWS 10:1-2, 10-18 "The sacrifices under that system ( the Old Covenant) were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.   If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.   For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.  Under the Old Covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.   But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.   There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under His feet.   For by that one offering He forever m...
Post a Comment
Read more
HEARING MUST BE UNITED TO BELIEVING Hebrews 3:16-19 “And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard His voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when He took an oath that they would never enter His rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed Him? So, we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter His rest.” I have heard people say, “If I heard the voice of God. I would not rebel; I’d believe.” Others have said, “If I saw a miracle, I’d believe.” We really do not have a grip on the capacity for unbelief that is resident in the human heart and mind. The children of Israel saw God decimate the false gods of Egypt in the plagues He sent through Moses. The Lord God who had called Abraham made sure that Abraham’s children saw that the gods and religious culture surrounding them for 400 years were not gods at all...
Post a Comment
Read more