W7D5: When You Are Tempted

"The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." 1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

Notice that this verse doesn’t say IF you are tempted, but WHEN you are tempted. So many people stumble because they think if they honor God and do all the right things, He will give them a good and comfy life. The Scriptures don't say this, they say we will have trials, temptations and burdens we can’t bear. This is true for every single person who walks this earth. 

Tests or trials are adversities that God brings into our lives with the purpose of growing us spiritually. Much like we encourage our children to learn to walk, even though we know they will fall, because they need to walk to have the best life possible. So God allows trials to come to stretch us and equip us for the spiritual life ahead.

Temptations are appeals to our flesh by Satan to drive a wedge between us and God. He can use trials and turn them into temptations because he knows we would rather not go through the hard training it takes to become the person we want to be. He will tell us the pain is not fair or unnecessary, we can be who we want to be without it. 

We find this attitude in the gym where kids want to play, but they don’t want to put in the time to learn how to play or develop their bodies to play at their best. They just want to play so they think they should get to play. If not, they say the system is not fair. Their actions show they believe hard work is not necessary for success. God is like a coach that uses trials to develop us. Satan uses the weakness of our flesh to bypass the trials and defeat us. God’s way makes us better, Satan’s way makes us bitter.

God wants us to live a full and thriving life, but we have to learn and grow in order to achieve it. It’s hard to study, it’s hard to work out, it’s hard to be disciplined. But we all know that life is so much better when we study, work out and discipline ourselves. It doesn’t mean we will always pass the test, be the fastest on the team or get everything done. But there is something deeply satisfying when we work hard for those goals and approach them. 

To be our best we must push through the pain, even in the midst of a plateau where we see no more progress. At some point, we will move the dial forward and see more progress. When that happens, there is no better feeling in the world. When we just quit, give in and cave, there is no worse feeling. Temptations are designed to defeat us, to get us to give up and do things our way, the easy way. It keeps us from experiencing the purpose of trials in our lives which is to bring us great joy and victory.

Are you prepared to face trials in your life? What steps can you take to keep the trials meant for good to turn into temptations that separate us from God?

Meditate on “When you are tempted."