I read an article in a doctor’s waiting room recently. It dealt with the using of weights to build muscle mass and strength. I had never considered how to use weights. To me, they were just inert resistance. The first point that the writer made was that one must first test one’s self by selecting weights that could be lifted by you between eight to twelve times. If you could continue beyond that number, select a heavier weight until more than a dozen times is not possible. The reason for this is that the muscle must be strained and actually stretched so that the body will fill in the gaps formed with new muscle. After that one can lift a slightly heavier weight and so on. In other words, this explains the saying, “No pain, no gain” If there is no pain, you have not damaged the muscle, and it will not grow larger.
With this background, let’s consider, 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Is this not saying, God will permit you to be tempted, strained like the muscle, that you may be strengthened? He permits it to strengthen us.
God is not in the tempting business, but as there are plenty of others who are, God is still in control. He will not allow you to be tempted greater than you are able. God is in the protection, and the escape business. He will make a way of escape, in every case, thus making nonsense the saying, “The Devil made me do it.” The Devil, or one of his, cam put you under great pressure, but God will not allow him to overwhelm you.
Immediately after his baptism, our Lord Jesus, went into the wilderness where the Devil used every pressure he could to break him. Jesus had not eaten for forty days, so the Devil tried to tempt him to use his power selfishly for himself. Jesus’ answer was, “It is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4. Again the Devil tried with a different temptation to get him to use his power in order to get immediate attention by leaping from the temple tower and to land safely in front of the crowds gathered there. When this failed, he tried again to tempt Jesus to avoid his coming crucifixion for the salvation of the nations. This time, he showed him the nations spread out before him, offering them to him, if Jesus would just worship him. In each case, the words, “It is written” prefix the response. There is our clue, Jesus was tempted, but without sin. “The Word, it is written” was his answer, and should be ours as well.
Know the Word, use it, and The Devil will flee you. Both Phyllis and I have felt the cold chill of the presence of an evil one, and in both cases, it was reference to Jesus Christ who shed his blood for our salvation, and the Word, that brushed him aside. And he went away for a time.
It is written, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall received the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man” James 1:12,13.
No comments:
Post a Comment