Monday, September 30, 2013
Romans 8:31b If God is for us, who can be against us?
TESTED OR TEMPTED? FIND STRENGTH IN JESUS!
Everyone faces temptations. We're tempted to lie and cover up our mistakes. We're tempted to cheat and find the easy way out. We're tempted to give up when it gets a little tough or a little inconvenient. At times we may be tempted to let sinful greed turn into theft. We're often tempted to lust with all the billboard, TV, and movie ads. We're also tempted to hate not just enemies, but those even under our own roof because of careless words spoken or even thought. All these temptations come from our own sinful flesh, a sinful flesh that by nature desires nothing but to disregard the Word of God.
The world teaches you to abandon hope, serve yourself, and in essence, abandon God. Temptations come in a flood around us to be tolerant of trespassing God's righteous law and look to our own self-serving gratifications, interests, and pleasures. Temptations come from the world that says religion is just a crutch and are all basically the same.
Finally, the most unsuspecting, temptations come from our greatest enemy -- Satan himself. The devil doesn't want us to even think that he exists. His only purpose is to make mankind fall and turn away from God and from the truth about salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Satan has been leading this assault on the world since the fall into sin back in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago. He has perfected his art of seduction and will not hold back on us any more than he did with Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4).
So are you ready to withstand all these enemies on your own?
God's Word teaches us how to with Christ. We find forgiveness for failure, peace in pardon, and strength against sin as we look to the Savior and His Word for an infinitely better battle plan! What a joy it is to be reminded, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
