TEMPTATION

TEMPTATION,    “WORTH CONSIDERING” 1/30/20   (Across my desk today.)
    
Today’s Scripture
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown…”  (Isaiah 43:2, NLT)

Faith in the Middle
In Genesis 37, God gave Joseph a dream that one day his family would bow down before him. God showed him the end, and the promise was planted in his heart. But what God didn’t show him was the middle. Years later, when the dream came to pass and Joseph was ruling over the nation of Egypt, I can hear him saying, “God, You gave me this incredible promise, but You didn’t tell me I’d be thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused of a crime, and put in prison for years.” If Joseph were here today, he would tell you, “Don’t get discouraged in the middle when life doesn’t make sense.” You know the promise is in your heart, but every circumstance says just the opposite. Keep believing, keep being your best. If you’ll have faith for the middle, the God of the middle is going to protect you, provide for you, and favor you.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You for Your promise to be with me through the deepest of waters. Even when life doesn’t make sense, I choose to trust in You and believe that You are working behind the scenes for my good. I will have faith for the middle. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Ken’s Comments,
As a Christian it is wonderful to know that God’s Grace is ALWAYS there for us if we ask for it.  However, it is not automatic.  We need to come to the end of ourselves and our abilities in the difficulty and ask for the help.  Our Creator has told us that there is no temptation that comes on us that can defeat us unless we agree with it and refuse to accept HIS grace in the situation.

In Luke 4:13, Jesus gained the victory over the temptations by quoting the words of Moses.  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.  1 Cor. 10:13.   James even tells us to rejoice when we are tempted as after we are tried and have the victory the Lord will bless us with a Crown of Life. James 1: 2-12.  And Peter says the same in 1 Pet. 1:6:  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

In Rev. 3:10, Christ Jesus reminds us to keep HIS word with Patience and HE will keep us. 
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

So the Holy Scriptures teach us:  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. Rom. 13:14

The interesting thing about lust is that it is not sin in it’s self.   It is when we agree with it and start making plans to fulfill it that it becomes sin.  We find this in James 1:15,  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  In Heb. 4:15 we find this scripture:  ”For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”  This is important because if you don’t know this the enemy of your soul will tempt you, you say no, get the victory, and he then goes on to condemn you for the temptation.  And if you buy into the lie you can be had for lunch.  All sin begins with BELIEVING a lie but temptation is not sin.

So take the time to see what God, your Creator has in mind for you through Christ Jesus.  Of course GOD’s fore ordination is viewed through GOD’S absolute foreknowledge of knowing all about us before we were conceived.  So don’t get caught up in Calvinism.  If you want the light, HE gives it to you.  Or if you had rather have the darkness that too is available.  The choice is yours as long as you are among the living.  After you die, your choice of light or darkness is set for eternity.  As with God there is no darkness.

Rom. 8:30,   And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].  31 What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]  32 He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?]  34 Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?  35 Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?  36 Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.  37 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors [m]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.  38 For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things [n]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,  39 Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yours, In His great love and wonderful grace and mercy,   Ken<><   www.Trinity-Aloha.org

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