Wednesday, September 23

The Irish poet Oscar Wilde once said; “I can resist almost everything except temptation.”
Question: Where does temptation come from? Does God tempt people? Does God lead us into temptation?

In the Lord’s Prayer we say, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:13). James 1:13 says, Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. That’s true. But the Bible also says, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).
Clearly God cannot put any evil desires or temptations into our hearts because there is no evil desire in His heart. 

I have often heard Christians quoting (and sometimes misapplying) this passage from 1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Notice that the passage does not say that God will not allow you to be tempted at all. In fact nowhere does the Bible say that the Christian life is going to be free from temptation. There is a sense in which all of our life is a kind of facing temptation. There is no moment of your life that is not a moment of temptation, a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility. It is just that in some moments the temptation is more acute than others. 

Jesus teaches us to pray that we will not be led into temptation. That we will not fall into the temptation, whatever it may be. That we will recognize it for what it is and seek the strength and grace of our Jesus to face it.

Henry Ward Beecher said, “Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.” 

Today you and I will face countless temptations (many which we will not even recognize). That’s what life is: endless choices between kindness and cruelty, integrity and deceit, trust and distrust, belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience.

O God, grant us the grace and strength of your Son Jesus to face the temptations that come our way today. Hold us back from falling into any thought, word, or action that might damage our soul or the glory of Your Name – Amen.

Jeff Frazier