Some mornings I really struggle to wrap up in my head into a short devotional or “OneMinuteMinistry”. I have seen an alignment this week is so many venues of temptation and the power to resist it. I have heard sermons on Ephesians 6 and the power of the Sword of the Spirit. I have read of the alignment of the temptations of beginning in Genesis even through Christ in the desert. Of how it all wraps together in Satan’s evil ways, and God’s ways of the power to resist. Dr. Willmington quotes “The devil laughs with hellish glee when he can trick someone into either adding to or subtracting from God’s Word”. That really stuck with me for how many false prophets or teachers that are around us today. I plea with you to spend time in God’s Word and for discernment of those teaching in the public eye today.
The only weapon for war
1John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
I am really enjoying the structured study I have just begun this week. It is amazing to me how God has so many venues tying all together from what I have been listening to and reading. So much has been on temptation and the power to fight them. The verses above in 1 John warn us of the three “deadly” sins. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. I even reflected on my recent testimony and realized how many different times I have filled in situations under each of those headings. In Genesis 3 Eve succumbed to all three, and as a result she and Adam drug the entire human race into sin. In Matthew 4:3-10 Christ was tempted by Satan in all three areas also but He resisted Satan and replied to each temptation with Scripture. This was a lesson for us for eternity in the power of God’s Word in resisting temptation.
This must be perfectly clear; God will never entice you to sin. James 1:13-14 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Satan smiles when he can entice us to sin or even feel in our pride we are doing good deeds. Pride can be a back door sin for it has the feeling of elevation of good, but the sin of self worthiness. But as always with God there is good news: 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. God has given us the ability to fight those temptations with an offensive weapon: His Word. Christ when he was being tempted quoted Scripture setting the example. The more time you spend with God, the more His Word dwells in your heart. When you need it most, the Spirit will remind you of it, and give you the power to resist Satan and claim your victory in Christ. The only way you will have that weapon at your disposal is to open the Word and plant it in your heart daily.
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