Temptation
comes from our inner desire to worship ourselves. Satan offers us
short cuts to God's blessings or paints for us a beautiful picture of
what God "really" intends for us to have, and we jump at the chance to
make it so. We are just as easily deceived as Eve was in the Garden.
And we are just as deliberately disobedient as Adam was in the Garden.
Sometimes the temptation is to do something
God does not want us to do--the lust of the flesh. Sometimes the
temptation is to have something God does not want us to have--the lust
of the eyes. Sometimes the temptation is to be something God does not
want us to be--the boastful pride of life. We reject our gift and our
calling because it doesn't allow us to do things we desire to do,
doesn't provide the stuff we want, and doesn't give us the prestige and
self-image that we want for ourselves. We reject obedience, we reject
contentment, and we reject humility. We refuse to trust God's promises:
that obedience is the only way to please Him and to show our love;
that He will supply all our need; that He has placed us just where He
needs us, precisely when He needs us to be there.
And we all know the consequences of giving into temptation: broken fellowship with God, a guilty fear of God, a strain in our earthly relationships, and a tremendous struggle to find peace and contentment in our daily lives. We must remember that God calls us to be totally dependent on Him, to obey Him and leave the results in His hands, and to be satisfied with having what we have this day. There are no positives to partial obedience. There are no positives to materialism. There are no positives to resisting God's transforming work in your life--to allowing Him to use you as you are and where you are. Nothing is more destructive than the efforts we make to be the god of our own lives. When we try to turn stones into bread--even when we are hungry, when we desire to do something spectacular--even spiritually--so that people will take note of us, when we try to become the king over our own kingdom, we have become idolatrous. And behind every idol--even if the idol closely resembles our own image--is the worship of the devil himself.
And we all know the consequences of giving into temptation: broken fellowship with God, a guilty fear of God, a strain in our earthly relationships, and a tremendous struggle to find peace and contentment in our daily lives. We must remember that God calls us to be totally dependent on Him, to obey Him and leave the results in His hands, and to be satisfied with having what we have this day. There are no positives to partial obedience. There are no positives to materialism. There are no positives to resisting God's transforming work in your life--to allowing Him to use you as you are and where you are. Nothing is more destructive than the efforts we make to be the god of our own lives. When we try to turn stones into bread--even when we are hungry, when we desire to do something spectacular--even spiritually--so that people will take note of us, when we try to become the king over our own kingdom, we have become idolatrous. And behind every idol--even if the idol closely resembles our own image--is the worship of the devil himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment