There is a difference between a trial and a temptation. God uses trials in our life to help us to walk in the Spirit and not to rely on the flesh (Galatians 5:16). In this life we will have tribulation. We do not need to fear, because with Jesus in us, we can overcome every time (John 16:33; Romans 8:37). God does promise, however, that we will never experience a temptation that is more than we can bear. His Holy Spirit is right there to give us the grace to withstand it. However, He can only provide us with a way to stand against the temptation if we avail our self of His help (1 Corinthians 10:13).
From the seed of one trial,
God bears much fruit in our life. We learn life lessons that could not come to
us any other way. We grow closer to Christ with each trial, because it is
through His strength that we endure them. His Spirit helps us to trust in the
eternal aspects of life, which we cannot see, as we surrender to Him the
frightful temporal issues which plague our life (2 Corinthians 4:18). God has a plan for each of us. As we walk in His will, He works all
things out for our good (Romans
8:28).
All of us face extreme
hardships at least once in our life. God uses each trial to teach us to rely on
Him. He did this with Jesus also, because Jesus learned obedience through the
things that He suffered (Hebrews
5:8). You may notice, however, that it
is easy to run to God when Satan unleashes his fury on us in a trial. It is a
different story when Satan tempts us with his deception. We forget to go to
God, and we are tempted. We think we can handle it by our self. This is nothing
short of self-righteousness. Then complacency creeps into our heart and Satan
has us right where he wants us.
Complacency is actually the
sin that we find it hardest to withstand. Satan lulls us into apathy and away
from our passion for Christ. Then the fervency of our dedication to Him
decreases little by little. Some of us spend years pursuing the wispy pleasures
of this world at Satan’s invitation. He freely provides all sorts of
substitutes that we use to attempt to quench the deep longing in our heart and
to assuage the void that only Jesus can fill.
It is much easier to trust
in what we can see with our human eyes than to trust in the eternal aspects
that can only be viewed with the eyes of the Spirit (Hebrews 11:1). We usually rely on human wisdom for most of our
decisions and we collect friends around us that agree with us. We feel safe
somehow in trusting only what we can prove and believing only that which makes
sense to the human mind.
True contentment will
continue to elude us, however, until we completely trust our life to Christ and
accept God’s will for each day in it. Only then will God remove the hills and
bumps from our life. When we refuse to depend upon human reasoning and instead
honor God and avoid immorality, then we will enjoy health in our body, soul and
spirit (Proverbs
3:5-8). God began a good work in us and
He will see in through to the completion of this life and into the next (Philippians 1:6). God loves us so much that He sacrificed His only
begotten Son for us, and he will freely give us an eternal inheritance with
Jesus (Romans 8:32).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, You were with
God in the beginning (John 1:2) and mirrored His nature (Philippians 2:6). Yet, You humbled Yourself and took on the form of a
man to die in our place. Thank you for redemption through Your blood and for
the forgiveness of sin (Ephesians
1:7). Teach us to see Your purpose in
trials and to look at life from an eternal perspective, so we can avoid Satan’s
temptations. Help us to totally trust in You and not to rely on our human
wisdom (Proverbs
3:5-8).
Thought
for the Day:
God
tries us to strengthen us; but Satan tempts us to weaken us. Thank you, Michael Emig, for the use of your photo.
