The Heart of Temptation

THE HEART OF TEMPTATION

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8

For some reason the whole subject of temptation keeps coming up in my devotional reading. In my interaction with staff, guests, Colony men and Christian leaders, there seems to be an all out affront by the enemy, which is probably why there is such a need for this topic in all of our lives.

Listen to these words about the heart of temptation:

"I have learned, Lord, that Satan's aim in tempting me is to destroy my will. That is clearly revealed in his tempting Jesus, my pattern. Once Jesus had accepted the Father's will at His baptism, that will was immediately put to the test in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). Each of the three temptations was carefully contrived to weaken Christ's grip on the will of His heavenly Father. Once that grip is loosed, it is only a matter of time before the entire defense breaks down in sin.

Jesus was HUNGRY and TIRED when Satan met him in the desert. The needs of the body are often used as the OPENING WEDGE for an attack on the WILL, whether the need is for food, rest, relaxing or whatever. I make a mistake, however, if I think that Satan will be satisfied merely to trip me up on a physical need; he is after my WILL! The way I handle my body is only the symptom of my basic will commitment. Satan does not try to capture symptoms; he is after the thing that creates the symptoms.

The answer to Satan's approach through the body is a reaffirmation of my will. 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matthew 4:10) There is decisiveness, finality! I can only be victorious over Satan and his allurements when I nail the peg of commitment further into the soil. I am strengthened by the response of Nehemiah, when asked to compromise with the enemy, 'I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.' (Nehemiah 6:3) Four times the temptation came, and four times Nehemiah reaffirmed his grip on God's will for him. So I must meet Satan head-on, not in peripheries, and send him packing by determining once again to do God's will and stick to it, regardless.
That is victory for Nehemiah, countless others, and myself." From DAILY WITH THE KING (Moody Press)

Great quote: The nominal Christian pays homage to something about Jesus, rather than worshipping the man himself. For this reason, nominal Christians will extol the moral teachings of Jesus, the faith of Jesus, the personality of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, the world view of Jesus, the self-understanding of Jesus, etc. None of these worships Jesus as the Christ, but only something about him, something peripheral to the actual flesh-and-blood man. This is why when the almighty God came into the world in Jesus, he came as the lowest of the low, as weakness itself, as a complete and utter nothing, in order that men would be forced into the crucial decision about him alone and would not be able to worship anything about him. -- Robert L. Short