"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man..."
1 Corinthians 10:13

The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.

A person's inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.

Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal-it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don't know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.

Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else-what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations-He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16).

Taken from My Utmost for His Highest-Special Updated Edition, edited by James Reimann. September 17th entry

Oswald Chambers always did have a way with words. What exactly he means by "Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal-it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good," I'm not quite sure.

If any of you have insight into what he means by all this, please feel free to leave me comments or e-mail me with your insights. I'd love to hear what you all have to say about this.

This entry could not have come at a more opportune time. It seems that each time I open up the My Utmost for His Highest devotional, I am flabbergasted by how directly the daily entry speaks to my situation.

Lastly, Martin Luther once said that his temptations were his "Masters of Divinity," meaning that, more than anything else that taught him his theology of God, was the handling of his temptations and the ability to resist them. That taught him more about God than anything else. It taught him true character and maturity.

Essentially, to him, the true mark of a person's character and maturity, was how a person handled the temptations in their life.

This entry was posted by Christopher Wu, on Sunday, September 17, 2006. You can leave your response.