Think you're alone in your temptation?
"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man …" (1 Corinthians 10:13). Temptations take many forms. They can be as simple as cheating on your diet to as serious as questioning God's will for your life. Did you ever think "why me" when temptation comes your way? All of us have but, Paul has good news for those of us honest enough to admit we are tempted. He tells us that we have never suffered any temptation that is not common to man. We do not rate any special temptations. It took me a long time to understand that temptation itself is not sin. Sin comes in when we act on the temptation. When we let the temptation take control. Then the seed of sin is born. I have heard many a preacher say we have to sin. That it is alright to sin because we are human. All we have to do is repent and all is forgiven and we are again covered by the blood. WRONG! 1 John 3:4-6 says 4Those who sin are opposed to the law of God, for all sin opposes the law of God. 5And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, for there is no sin in him. 6So if we continue to live in him, we won’t sin either. But those who keep on sinning have never known him or understood who he is. The point here is we are not to keep sinning but that is another teaching. That was for free. Now back to temptation. Though it is tempting to me to teach on not sinning.
As I said temptation takes may forms, but don't kid yourself it is something very serious. The forms of temptation are determined by our spiritual maturity. An example from real Life. I know this man of God who's whole goal in life is to serve Jesus. He has gone from "it is so hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way to I am not worthy to serve the Lord but He lets me." The Lord has been working on his heart to keep his eyes on Jesus no matter what happens. This was brought home to him when on a recent trip, his wife experienced some severe stomach pain. They were on the road and He prayed for her and nothing seemed to help. Finally He took his eyes off her pain, put his eyes on Jesus and told Jesus that He was his only supply and he had nothing or no one if Jesus was not there for him. He looked up and saw a 20' x 30' billboard that said along the top "THE ONLY SOLUTION IS". In the middle in rainbow letters was "JESUS", and along the bottom was in read letters "all his promises will come true". He said "look" to his wife, she saw a rainbow colored billboard with a woman and spanish lettering. By the way, at the moment that he saw the billboard his wifes pain stopped and she had no more problems the rest of the trip. After the trip the old devil started to work on him to try get his eyes off Jesus. First problems arose. When this did not work the old scoundrel started to work on his ego. Women were making advances toward him. One stranger came up to him and told him how nice he smelled. His only comment was "one usually smells clean after a shower." One woman came up from nowhere and put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed it. All the red warning lights went off. The Devil was on the prowl. This was confirmed by a dream that his wife had. But you notice that the temptation was of that known to man. EGO!!! But Praise God that He did as we are told in 1 Corintains 10:13 13No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. God provided the escape, a spiritual nature that kept it eyes on Jesus not the human ego. Jesus confirmed it through the wife's dream. If you had not guessed that man was none other than myself. The temptation was to try to get my eyes off Jesus and put them on a frail, flawed human. The form of your temptation will depend on where you stand spiritually. You must remember that old slue foot has had your whole life to study you and can customize your temptations just for you and your life. The temptation will be to confuse you and take your eyes off what the Lord wants for you. If you follow the temptation you will fall right into the Devils plans and he will win. Temptation is something we cannot escape if we are striving to follow the Lord and His will. I love how Peter puts it. 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NLT) 8Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. 9Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. You have to notice that the devil is not going around quietly looking for whom he can devour, he is described as a roaring lion. In other words the old devil is so proud and arrogant about his ability to drag Christians into the pit of temptation and sin he can do it openly and loudly. Have you ever noticed how temptation is. It starts out simple and quiet and grows louder and louder until we either give in and sin or we rebuke it in the name of Jesus and run from it.
If you are living a life without any temptation, then I would venture to guess that you are so far away from where Jesus wants you that you are not a threat to the Devil. Think about it my Friend.
God Bless Pastor Jay
