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| Temptations & Faith |
| Monday, October 12, 2009 |
Jesus makes some interesting statements in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17. Let's take a look at a few:
There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. So watch yourselves! (vs. 1-3)
I run into temptations every single day because here in North America I live in a culture full of temptation -- it's at the heart of all marketing and advertising. And I have three options at my disposal for handling it:
1. Jesus taught us to pray that the Father would not lead us into temptation (Matt. 6:13). This doesn't mean that God does the tempting (James 1:13), but that He has the power to lead us away from temptation. If something is constantly tempting us we must pray for the Spirit's assistance. To His disciples Jesus said: "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." (Luke 22:40-41)
2. We can take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). That means bringing those tempting thoughts before God's Word so that His truth can take them prisoner. Jesus' prayer in John 17 included this promise: "that we are sanctified by God's Word." By taking our thoughts captive, and hauling them before the glaring truth of God's Word, we can bind them in the name of Jesus, and sanctify our minds as His truth penetrates our heart. But -- "taking every thought captive" also means, again, bringing our thought life to God in prayer: "Lord, remove these thoughts from me, I pray." And God's promise to those who "walk by the Spirit" is that "they will not carry out the desires of the flesh" Galatians 5:16).
3. We can also "flee temptation" (2 Tim. 2:22). If there are hotspots in your life, you need to pro-actively avoid them, and if they blindside you in any way, run from them as if a grizzly bear is chasing you.
"But, what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting."
Are you a person who tempts other people? Are you tempting your children to hate you? Are you tempting your spouse to despise you? Are you tempting a fellow employee to lust after you? "What sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting" God says. When you are the one doing the tempting you are playing with fire, and some of your current misery may be a direct result of your actions. " It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble."
The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you! (vs. 5,6)
Does this mean that if we have even a tiny little bit of faith we can throw our spiritual authority around all over the place? Of course not! What Jesus is teaching us here is that if we know that it's the Father's will to uproot a mulberry bush and throw it into the sea, then we can pray in confidence, through our faith, that when we command the mulberry bush to be uprooted, He will do it. We can only pray the Father's will; we don't receive if we're simply praying for our own desires to come true (James 4:4).
“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’
This one is very interesting! Many Christians believe that they are serving God because He needs them; or that they should get something in return because they have served Him; or that they are special to God because they have sacrificed for Him. But Jesus is teaching us here that it is OUR DUTY to serve God, and that God owes us nothing. God doesn't need us. Quite to the contrary, we are the ones who need Him. And by being obedient to Him and following Him, we are participating in His good and perfect will. But that does not mean that we should expect Him to turn around and bless us, simply because we are doing what He expects us to do anyway. God may say "Well done thou good and faithful servant", but the obedience He expects from us in no way obliges Him to pour out His treasure chest of blessings for us.
Labels: faith, faithfulness |
posted by Alan @ 3:21 PM   |
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Name: Alan
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