Continuing on, here is a 2nd thing I have noticed in my everyday relationship with Christ Jesus...God can not be tempted by evil nor does He tempt us...with evil.
When we fail at things in life, we tend to blame...anything BUT us. We blame the circumstances surrounding such an event, we blame the fact we didn't have adequate training to do the job properly, and of course...the all time favorite...we blame somebody else for our own failures.
The same logic seems to apply when evil or sin is at work within us to get a "foothold" in our daily lives. We know by the warnings of our own hearts and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit...something is wrong...yet we rationalize that it will be OK, and choose evil over good. And then we have the audacity to come up with some "brilliant deduction" like: "Why did God allow something like this to happen...at this time...right when I was in my moment of weakness. It wasn't like I was aggressively looking for evil...for some reason God allowed this evil to come to me." Really?
The Sacred Scriptures declare this: temptations and any sort of evil...DOES NOT come from God. I think it is good to get this clear in our minds: evil things do not tempt God...they never have, and God will not use evil things to...tempt you. Why?
Because there is nothing about evil that God finds the least bit appealing. He has no interest...God does not have any moral weakness....nor does He desire to have any of His own be tempted to do wrong things.
In Matthew 7:11 and in Luke 11:13 as well, Jesus makes some interesting statements in reference to Our Father and the Precious Holy Spirit:
A Gleaning from Matthew 7:11
" If you, being evil...and I mean radically and diabolically depraved, are led by natural affections within you to give good things to your children...things you not only deem necessary but things you want to do in an effort to support the lives of your own children...how much more does your Heavenly Father, whose natural affections are infinite in Goodness...infinite in Mercy...and infinite in Grace...desires to give you good things empowered by His Total Grace and the Holy Spirit working in your lives!?...and He is wanting to do so to anyone of His own...when we simply ask. Your Heavenly Father is more than capable to give you what you ask for...He is more than able to relieve you of your daily burdens, and above all, you can see for yourselves that He is Lord...Lord of both Heaven and Lord of the earth!"
Then, the apostle James writes an interesting series of statements:
A Gleaning from James 1:13-15
" When anyone is under the pressures of daily life, it is easy to give in to evil that may seem real tempting at the moment, and somehow deduct this temptation with logic saying to yourself: "This is God...He is trying to mess me up...He is seeing whether I care about Him...or not."
Wrong Answer!
When these times come upon us...and everyone faces times like this...we must remember: God is totally incapable of being tempted by evil...and He will not lower His standards and use evil...to tempt any one of us.
Don't get all wrapped up in that train of thought...INSTEAD...and let this sink in...evil...or even the temptation to do evil...comes from one source...one desire...and that is...YOU!
Evil becomes a serious temptation to us...because we have been drawn to it (usually from previous entertaining thoughts)...and eventually...the more we entertain...the more we are drawn to...evil.
Then, one day it happens...the evil desires that we now have "built up within us", get the best of us...and we get dragged off with these evil desires and find ourselves trapped. These lusts and passions that come in this life have now made entrance into our lives...and if we give these temptations of evil enough room to grow in our hearts...it becomes a major conflict...good vs. evil, choosing sin over forgiveness...and if an evil desire is allowed to flourish in our lives...it can become deadly...hurting, maiming, and destroying anything in its path. Evil desires and its purpose is to rob and steal the new found freedom you have in Christ Jesus...and trust me on this one...evil's ultimate goal...is to...kill you!"
The same logic seems to apply when evil or sin is at work within us to get a "foothold" in our daily lives. We know by the warnings of our own hearts and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit...something is wrong...yet we rationalize that it will be OK, and choose evil over good. And then we have the audacity to come up with some "brilliant deduction" like: "Why did God allow something like this to happen...at this time...right when I was in my moment of weakness. It wasn't like I was aggressively looking for evil...for some reason God allowed this evil to come to me." Really?
The Sacred Scriptures declare this: temptations and any sort of evil...DOES NOT come from God. I think it is good to get this clear in our minds: evil things do not tempt God...they never have, and God will not use evil things to...tempt you. Why?
Because there is nothing about evil that God finds the least bit appealing. He has no interest...God does not have any moral weakness....nor does He desire to have any of His own be tempted to do wrong things.
In Matthew 7:11 and in Luke 11:13 as well, Jesus makes some interesting statements in reference to Our Father and the Precious Holy Spirit:
A Gleaning from Matthew 7:11
Then, the apostle James writes an interesting series of statements:
A Gleaning from James 1:13-15
" When anyone is under the pressures of daily life, it is easy to give in to evil that may seem real tempting at the moment, and somehow deduct this temptation with logic saying to yourself: "This is God...He is trying to mess me up...He is seeing whether I care about Him...or not."
Wrong Answer!
When these times come upon us...and everyone faces times like this...we must remember: God is totally incapable of being tempted by evil...and He will not lower His standards and use evil...to tempt any one of us.
Don't get all wrapped up in that train of thought...INSTEAD...and let this sink in...evil...or even the temptation to do evil...comes from one source...one desire...and that is...YOU!
Then, one day it happens...the evil desires that we now have "built up within us", get the best of us...and we get dragged off with these evil desires and find ourselves trapped. These lusts and passions that come in this life have now made entrance into our lives...and if we give these temptations of evil enough room to grow in our hearts...it becomes a major conflict...good vs. evil, choosing sin over forgiveness...and if an evil desire is allowed to flourish in our lives...it can become deadly...hurting, maiming, and destroying anything in its path. Evil desires and its purpose is to rob and steal the new found freedom you have in Christ Jesus...and trust me on this one...evil's ultimate goal...is to...kill you!"
No comments:
Post a Comment