Posted on 09/17/2008 4:32:37 AM PDT by Vision
The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.
A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.
Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal— it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.
Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else--what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations--He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15-16 ).
In 1910 Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen, who still resides in London (as of 1992).
In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.
My Utmost for His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and in this, the last decade of the century, remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic. [from the flyleaf of the book]
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Good morning.
Timely message. Thank you.
Good morning.
Amen. Carpe Diem.
Good Morning Vision and all. What perfect timing for this post on temptation. God sustains us in the midst of. He does not save us from. I very much needed this passage today and the reassurance that i am not alone.
I also notice when I 'overcome' or when I am strengthened to move away from one area of temptation or am in the midst of working on overcoming the old one, new ones present themselves often sending me completely off kilter. Then I feel very bad about myself. Like I have done something very wrong. Like I am a bad person. This post is such great reminder I am just human. Just as God made me and God is right next to me in all of this wanting for me to turn to him for sustenance.
I do find when I turn to the Lord to sustain me through one temptation though I am often that much more strengthened when I establish such a pattern and repeat it when all temptations present themselves.
Thanks again and have a wonderfully God sustained day all :-).
Well said.
And as regards "temptation"--I think before McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate, it was VERY tempting to get DISCOURAGED about the future of this country. I know I felt that way--and I hardly think I was alone among fellow Christian/Conservatives--ie--the Republican base.
And along with that discouragement came, for me at least, a tendency to fell a bit hopeless about having any impact on politics--so I just sort of stopped paying attention to it, and, forgive me Lord, praying about those who are now, and will be in the future, governing our nation.
But, just before the RNC convention, I realized how effective a tool "discouragement" is--in Satan's tool box--after attending a class, offered by our Pastor, focusing on the "faith of our Founding Fathers".
At the end of one of those classes, held just after the Invesco "investiture"--our Pastor prayed an earnest and heartfelt prayer, asking God to bring our nation back to Him, and guide our country's leaders.
It helped me realize how much I had been "tempted" to fall into the pit of dicouragement. And so I, too, prayed--very earnestly--that God guide John McCain, and open the "eyes of his heart" to the Wisdom and Courage that has its source ONLY in God.
And what did I learn of--here on FR--only a day or two later? The same "electrifying" news that McCain had picked Sarah Palin for his running mate.
Now I know we are not to put our faith and trust in men--or women, and I certainly realize McCain/Palin are "human, all too human." But I am also trying to remember (as A.W. Tozer so eloquently urges us to do) the Apostle Paul's admonition to live "by everything in prayer", and realize that NO area of human concern, including politics, should be excluded from being "lifted up" to God in prayer. No matter how TEMPTING it might be feel the enemy has gained too much "ground" in that area, and thus abandon it because it seems "lost".
And when I (all too easily) do get discouraged, I just remember how much my husband loved to tell me, when things got rough: "Our snakes can eat their snakes"!
Thanks for your thoughts.
“Our snakes can eat their snakes”! - love it.
I realized how effective a tool "discouragement" is--in Satan's tool box
and politics. Thank you so much for posting!
What you have said is also so very transferable to other areas of my life where I am feeling great discouragement. So thank you.
Thank you for the ping. Beautiful red meat of the Word of God!
That’s it.
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