We don't know what is in our own hearts. Do you remember
when Peter told Jesus that he would never deny him? Peter really
believed this, but Jesus knew better, and later circumstances
were a demonstration to Peter that he was mistaken about himself.
He wasn't the blameless man he thought he was.
He thought he would be willing to die for Christ, but he was
wrong about this. We make the same mistake about ourselves. We
usually don't see our own most serious shortcomings.
This is why God allows temptations to come into our lives.
They have an important purpose. Temptations show us whether we
are really the men and women of God we think we are. Jesus told
the disciples, just before His crucifixion, that they should pray
that they might not enter into temptation. I believe that He
meant that they should pray that they might not yield to
temptation. I think this is why He taught us to pray, "lead us
not into temptation." He was not telling us to pray that we
never encounter temptation. Rather, He wanted us to pray that we
not succumb to temptation when faced with it. He said that we
should ask the Father to "lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil," or, "deliver us from the evil one." The
way we can be kept from the evil one, or from Satan, is to avoid
yielding to temptation. Although it is true that the enemy is
the tempter, he cannot harm us if we do not yield to temptation.
If we could somehow appropriate the grace of God in such a way as
to avoid temptation whenever and wherever it presented itself,
then the devil would have absolutely no power over us whatsoever.
This is why it is so important for us to pray to the Father that
we not yield to temptation.
Nevertheless, we will always encounter temptation. We must
be prepared for it and be ready to deal with it whenever it
comes. We should decide ahead of time how we will react when we
are tempted, and act accordingly. The enemy will do all that he
can to get us to fall prey to temptation, because he knows that
if this happens, then he is able to take dominion over us in
certain areas of our lives.
Nobody avoids facing temptation. By the grace of God, we
can avoid falling prey to it when it comes, but we cannot avoid
being tempted. Even Jesus was tempted. Temptation is the
proving ground of life. It demonstrates either that we have
certain weaknesses or that God has granted us the strength of
character to overcome. In a very real sense, temptation is a
test. We either pass or we fail. If we "flunk," then we often
find that we have another opportunity to take the test. Toward
the end of his life, Peter passed the test that he had once
failed, and he gave his life in martyrdom during the persecutions
under Nero.
Temptation is actually very helpful to us as a way of
showing us if there are areas in our lives that are in need of
improvement. If we yield to temptation, it is God's way of
showing us, through these circumstances, that we have certain
weaknesses that need to be addressed. But it is far better to
ask God, beforehand, to help us not to fall prey to temptation,
since there are always negative consequences when we yield to the
tempter, who is out to destroy us.
Temptation is often very subtle. The tempter is a deceiver,
and he will do all that he can to fool us and coax us into
yielding to his enticements. He will use very clever arguments
in order to convince you, if he can, that your situation is
unique, or that circumstances warrant disobedience to what would
ordinarily be God's command. What we must remember is that it is
never in our best interest to listen to these arguments, however
convincing they may seem. You can be sure that the devil does
not have your interests at heart when he introduces a temptation
to you. He'll say, "nobody will know the difference." The only
problem is that God, who knows everything, is not only observing
your every action, but He is observing your very thoughts and
motivations. And in His sovereignty, He is also capable of
making known any evil act that you commit in secret. He may do
this for your own good if it will help you to refrain from
yielding to similar temptations in the future.
We have a tendency to continue to sin more and more in a
given area of our lives once we have fallen prey to temptation.
The enemy begins to strengthen his stranglehold in that
particular area, and we tend to succumb to greater and greater
temptations. This process often begins rather innocuously, or so
it would seem, but as time goes on, we literally become enslaved
to it unless there is a concerted effort to appropriate God's
grace in that area of our lives through the shed blood of Jesus
Christ. Otherwise, things generally go from bad to worse, until
many different aspects of our lives are affected.
The enemy will try to make you think that God's way is too
difficult. Or, he will try to make you think that God is not
really concerned about your own best interests. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Without fail, it is always in your best
interest to obey God, even if things don't look that way. You
will always suffer adverse consequences if you disobey Him and
yield to temptation.
Dwight L. Moody used to preach constantly about the love of
God, and one of his reasons for doing this was to remind people
that when God requires something of us, it is because He loves
us, and He wants the very best for us. It is not because He
wants to lay heavy burdens upon us, as the enemy would have us to
believe. The enemy wants us to think that it is an onerous and
burdensome task to obey God. In reality, however, what becomes
burdensome is to do the very thing that Satan tells us is the
easy way out. Do you remember the story of Sarah and Abraham and
Hagar and Ishmael? Sarah thought that the only way she was going
to have children would be through Abraham and her servant Hagar.
They chose the easy way out of their dilemma, and Ishmael was
born. But it turned out that this was not the easy way. It was
the difficult way. The family never had peace. There was
constant rivalry between Sarah and Hagar--so much so that
eventually they could no longer live with one another. What the
enemy had convinced Sarah and Abraham was the easy way, or even
the only way, turned out to have very bitter consequences. Don't
let this happen to you. When the tempter comes to you and tells
you that yielding to temptation will make life easier for you,
recognize it for what it is--a ploy that will only make life far
more burdensome.
God doesn't want our lives to be difficult. That's why He
doesn't want us to yield to temptation. The enemy tries to turn
this around and make us think that God wants our lives to be
difficult. Don't believe it. You can be sure that it is the
enemy who wants your life to be difficult. And he will do all
that he can to bring that about.
This is true even for those who think they are on the
devil's side. The devil is out to get you, and this is true
whether you are a Christian or a satanist. The devil will betray
all of those who have joined his forces, because he is out to get
all of humanity. The only safety for anybody is under the canopy
of love for God and obedience to Him.
If we fail to believe that God wants the best for us, then
we begin to have difficulties, and we fall prey to temptation.
Whenever you are faced with temptation, it is because a
tremendous battle is being waged for the control of your mind and
spirit. On the one hand, Satan wants you to think that the best
course of action is for you to yield to it. He tries to convince
you that God does not necessarily want the very best for you. On
the other hand, the Holy Spirit speaks through your conscience
that you are about to be hoodwinked. Satan wants you to be
disbelieving, because then you will miss out on the blessing that
God has for you in the area of your life that is being tested.
Parenthood is very helpful to us as an illustration of the
importance of obedience to God in the face of temptation. As
parents, we know what is important for our children. We love our
children, and we want the very best for them. We try to see to
it that they not do things that would be harmful to them. We ask
them to eat their vegetables. We tell them to do their homework.
We send them to bed at night so that they won't be too tired the
next day or get sick. We see to it that they don't eat too much
candy. Our own perspective on these things is so very different
from that of our children. They often think that we are being
too strict when we try to get them to do what is best for them.
They don't have our perspective with respect to what is in their
own best interest.
This is one of the reasons that God gives us children. It
helps us to see how we sometimes lack the perspective of our
heavenly father when it comes to what is really in our own best
interest. We are faced with a temptation and we yield to it.
Our conscience tells us we're disobeying. We don't understand.
Why would God want us to take the more difficult path? We don't
see that, in the long run, things will be much easier for us if
we simply obey conscience, resist the enemy, and refuse to yield
to whatever temptation might be before us.
This is a very difficult decision to make, because we are
usually in tough circumstances when faced with temptation. It
usually comes in our weakest moments. One way to guard against
falling prey to temptation is to be prepared ahead of time. Make
a decision prior to the time of your moment of weakness. Ask the
Lord for help to strengthen you, that you will be able to resist
temptation when it comes. This is what the Lord exhorted the
disciples to do while they were in the Garden of Gethsemane. He
kept waking them up and asking them to pray. Why? So that they
would resist temptation. An hour of decision was fast
approaching when they would be called upon either to deny the
Lord or to face possible martyrdom. The time of temptation was
fast approaching. This was why Jesus wanted them to pray. He
wanted them to be strengthened, so that they would not take the
easy way out. He wanted them to do the right thing, so that they
would avoid the evil consequences of succumbing to temptation.
We are told that all of the disciples forsook Jesus and
fled. Can you imagine the sorrow that they all must have felt
for having forsaken the Lord? Can you imagine the feelings of
remorse that they must have had? This could have been avoided if
they had taken the time to watch and pray prior to the hour of
temptation. May we all watch and pray and ask God for the
strength to resist in the hour of temptation that will soon come
upon the whole world.
Richard M. Riss
Union Bible Church, Old Bridge, N.J., July 19, 1992