Easter Devotional - Day 47
"Don't blame God when you are tempted! God cannot be tempted by evil, and he doesn't use evil to tempt others. We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead." James 1:13-15
We often like to cast blame outside ourselves for our temptations and failures. We become angry because of what others have done—it's their fault. We act on that anger and feel justified in blaming the one who failed or injured us. We seek revenge and plan retribution, considering it justified as no one else will make the originator of our loss pay for our pain. If we cannot somehow escape in attributing the very temptation as naturally coming from our enemy, we avoid guilt by pointing to Satan or demons as responsible for our attitudes and inclinations.
There is some Biblical justification for blaming temptation on supernatural sources. James, however, does not seem to buy it. His first response is to say that God is never tempted with evil. It is just contrary to God's very nature. Love does not seek evil, but good, as Paul would put it. John would define God's major attribute as love, a love that expels fear and retribution. James goes further in this text. He argues that no external tempter is necessary at all, when it come to sin. We must look deeper to see our own responsibility for the very temptations for us to sin.
Temptation may have an external factor, but they must begin closer to heart. They begin not from the outside, but internally with our own desires. You might be tempted to eat a fresh, cool, juicy piece of cantaloupe, but I would not. It may look good to you, but its fragrance turns my stomach. I have no desire for cantaloupe within me, so there is nothing on which such a temptation might build. Any temptation is only really effective when it matches a desire already within us. In James' words, then, it is from within that temptation originates. It begins not with any external offering or presentation, but with the internal desire where such an offer finds resonance.
God would not tempt us to sin. The devil did not make me do it. My hand was not forced by demons. Circumstance, salespersons, and marketing schemes are not to blame for my indulgence or over-indulgence. They have a foothold simply because of the desire that already abides within me.
The temptation to hate, anger, and revenge does not begin with those who offend me, but with my own propensity to violence, my insecurities which lead me to obliterate opposition to my fragile security. Greed does not begin with an assessment of the wealth of others. It simply finds opportunity based on my own desire to own, control, and acquire more and more. Lack of submission to God begins in my desire to retain control, my fear of life getting away from my desires and chosen direction. Temptation and sin originate from within. The external bearer of temptation is secondary.
Until we accept responsibility for our very temptations, we cannot accept the reality that they bring us step by step closer to death and destruction. They are contrary to God's desires for us because they kill and destroy rather than aid us toward life. We need not wage war against sin and temptation, so much as the illicit desires we harbor. That is where the battle is ultimately won or lost.
Take a look at the desires that lead you to be open to temptation.
"Lord, work on my desires that they might be transformed by your love and grace."
—©Copyright 2009, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
My latest books can be found here on amazon
We often like to cast blame outside ourselves for our temptations and failures. We become angry because of what others have done—it's their fault. We act on that anger and feel justified in blaming the one who failed or injured us. We seek revenge and plan retribution, considering it justified as no one else will make the originator of our loss pay for our pain. If we cannot somehow escape in attributing the very temptation as naturally coming from our enemy, we avoid guilt by pointing to Satan or demons as responsible for our attitudes and inclinations.
There is some Biblical justification for blaming temptation on supernatural sources. James, however, does not seem to buy it. His first response is to say that God is never tempted with evil. It is just contrary to God's very nature. Love does not seek evil, but good, as Paul would put it. John would define God's major attribute as love, a love that expels fear and retribution. James goes further in this text. He argues that no external tempter is necessary at all, when it come to sin. We must look deeper to see our own responsibility for the very temptations for us to sin.
Temptation may have an external factor, but they must begin closer to heart. They begin not from the outside, but internally with our own desires. You might be tempted to eat a fresh, cool, juicy piece of cantaloupe, but I would not. It may look good to you, but its fragrance turns my stomach. I have no desire for cantaloupe within me, so there is nothing on which such a temptation might build. Any temptation is only really effective when it matches a desire already within us. In James' words, then, it is from within that temptation originates. It begins not with any external offering or presentation, but with the internal desire where such an offer finds resonance.
God would not tempt us to sin. The devil did not make me do it. My hand was not forced by demons. Circumstance, salespersons, and marketing schemes are not to blame for my indulgence or over-indulgence. They have a foothold simply because of the desire that already abides within me.
The temptation to hate, anger, and revenge does not begin with those who offend me, but with my own propensity to violence, my insecurities which lead me to obliterate opposition to my fragile security. Greed does not begin with an assessment of the wealth of others. It simply finds opportunity based on my own desire to own, control, and acquire more and more. Lack of submission to God begins in my desire to retain control, my fear of life getting away from my desires and chosen direction. Temptation and sin originate from within. The external bearer of temptation is secondary.
Until we accept responsibility for our very temptations, we cannot accept the reality that they bring us step by step closer to death and destruction. They are contrary to God's desires for us because they kill and destroy rather than aid us toward life. We need not wage war against sin and temptation, so much as the illicit desires we harbor. That is where the battle is ultimately won or lost.
Take a look at the desires that lead you to be open to temptation.
"Lord, work on my desires that they might be transformed by your love and grace."
—©Copyright 2009, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
My latest books can be found here on amazon
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