Let no
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn
away of his own lust, and enticed.
James
1:13-14
The
failures of your life are a result of the course which you have chosen to
travel… The message of today’s devotional is simple; be accountable to yourself
and God if you want to be transformed and grow in Christ… There is nothing of
this world which will lead God away from His desires and plan… I state this to
make the point that when we do things that are not of God we cannot draw a
parallel to God when He was never in the equation in the first place… The
problem of accountability is one that has plagued mankind since his creation…
Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and when God inquired about his actions, the
first thing he said was the woman that
you gave me… Understand that the biggest hurdle we face is the acceptable
our mistakes and failures as our own instead of trying to point the proverbial
finger at someone else as if they are in control of our every single step… This
happens when we blame others for our situation or even try to speak ill-advised
words regarding the absences of God in our circumstances… You can be tempted by
evil; however, God (conquering death and the grave) cannot… The first things that we must realize on
this earth, is that we are sinners from birth and the natural feel is to do
what the flesh desires… This must understood as we take this Christian
journey because this will help us not only deal with temptations as they arise,
but it will also help us to keep a proper perspective of what is of God and
what isn’t… We face many trials and test throughout our walk; however, James
reminds us today to remember that the temptations we face are only tempting
because of the lust that lies within… Temptation is a desire to do something
especially something wrong… We break down the meaning of temptation because
doing something wrong and walking with God does not go hand and hand… We must
realize that enemy is busy and when we choose to walk with the Lord we choose the
narrow path that few find… This path takes a trained eye to find; however, the
broad path, the path that can be seen very easy and appealing to the eye is the
temptations that we face on a day to day basis… God desires that all men would
come to know Him and that known should perish, this shines light on the fact
that God doesn’t tempt you, He doesn’t want you to be enticed to do something
wrong; however, the enemy will always place temptations in front of you to make
you second guess or become apprehensive about the direction in which you are
going… This walk with God is as much about obeying Him as it is about being
accountable to yourself… Accept the things that you have done, take your
sins before the Lord and stop trying to make excuses or blame others for your
shortcomings… James says, “…God cannot be tempted with evil…” Remember
when Jesus was baptized and led into the wilderness, Satan tried Him three
times, but eventually Jesus rebuked him and he fled… Today know that you face
temptations; however, know that through the power of Jesus Christ you can
rebuke the temptations you face and they will flee…
Don’t blame
God for the temptations that you either entertain or incur… James reminds us
today that we must know the difference in the things that take place in our
lives as it relates to God’s will and plan for us… God never is nor will be tempted by evil, the desire of God is that we
will come to know Him and develop a more intimate relationship with Him;
however, often times we associate learning and developing in our Christian walk
with being tempted and dealing with evil… The message that James brings to
light today is that we must be accountable for our actions and take ownership
of the decisions that we make… Again, too often we want to blame everyone and
everything except ourselves for the predicaments that we end up in… How often
do we take ownership for the decisions that we make? Likewise, how often do we
blame God when things don’t go as we imagined? James reminds us today that God
doesn’t desire us to be tempted, but that we allow certain things to grasp our
attention which leads us down a road of temptation and despair… We must
remember that we came into this world as sinners and those who accept Christ
offering of Salvation we will be changed over when we leave this earth… Daily
we will wrestle with temptation because of the sinful nature that still resides
in us; James is saying that we must know that this is because of our sin and
not because of God’s neglect! It is of the utmost importance that we realize
where we are and where we are trying to go in order to understand the uphill
battle that we face… The devil wasn’t mad when you were born but when you were
born again… Jesus was not tempted of the devil until He was baptized and accepted
His father’s calling for His life… Temptation
is a device used by Satan to entice and lure us away from the will of God, this
is why James says that we are not tempted by God nor is God ever tempted… Adam
and Eve brought a curse on every child conceived and it is because of that that
we deal with trials and tribulations… The bible says that we reap what we sow,
there are a lot of things that we sowed yesterday and they are reaping in our
lives today… I lot of decisions that didn’t impact us yesterday are tearing us
down today; this is what James is talking about… Yes you have accepted Christ
as you’re personal savior, but know that there are still certain things that
you must endure and handle! A lot of times we come into the fold of Christ and
begin to expect things to happen, in reality we assume that peace is a given
and heartache will be removed… James
says today that you must know that you have a sinful nature and that there will
be times when you give into that sinful nature, when this happens don’t blame
God, but go to Him in prayer and acknowledge your sin!
BE BLESSED!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment