Skip to main content

 Temptation is not sin.

Internalizing and 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 his mind, will or 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 our 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. “
May be an image of 2 people
Like
Comment
Share

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  OUT IN THE OPEN God has not hidden what He has done to redeem humanity. He offers us the only way of true repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin and a new life that is unending. Truth is, though, He never forces repentance, faith, forgiveness and a new life on anyone. He desires a relationship, not the programmed responses of humanoid AI. His love for us has exposed the utter ruin of humanity because of our rebellion and sin. He doesn’t want us to be deceived into thinking that at the end of our lives here on earth we will all get a “participation trophy”. We have all personalized and internalized our rebellion against God. Humanity’s rebellion against God can be shocking horror or the civilized folly or relying on our broken moral compass to bring ourselves back into a state of wholeness. We want to be the ground of truth. We want our emotions enshrined and worshipped by all. The root problem is that humanity is spiritually dead and separated from Life, Himself. Both pride and ho...
Post a Comment
Read more
  PSALM 119:132 “Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your Name.” Here is the cry of an understanding heart. The Psalmist is acknowledging that life in all its fullness, the life God intends for us to live out here on earth is only found by God’s pursuit of us, His turning to us that we might turn to Him. The Psalmist knows that “Salvation is of the Lord.” He cries out for the Lord’s mercy to cover Him. He acknowledges that those who know the Lord, those who are known by Him and who love His Name, always find God’s mercy and grace to live out the life that God commands. God provides the wherewithal to do what He has commanded. He gives us the indwelling Power and Person of the Holy Spirit to BE Life within us. It is the Holy Spirit who conforms us to the Image of Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects in us the obedience of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He enables us to cooperate w...
Post a Comment
Read more
 UNDERSTANDING GOD'S MERCY Matthew 13:58 “ And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” I have heard it said that somehow the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the Lord Jesus Christ was somehow limited by the unbelief of the folks in His hometown of Nazareth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing limits the power of God nor His grace give to sinners to redeem, heal, and restore them to God. What we see is the mercy of God towards broken people. He will not reinforce unbelief. If someone refuses to believe who Jesus Christ is and what He has done, the Lord in His mercy will not reinforce that unbelief by manifesting His healing and delivering power upon the one who does not believe. Otherwise, we broken humans might come to think that we can get from God what we want because we want it, not because we have surrendered our lives to Him in faith. Christianity is not refined paganism where we get God to do what we want because we h...
Post a Comment
Read more