Weekly Devotional
By: Pastor Gloria Joseph
Title: The Power to Endure Temptations
Scripture Reference: James 1: 12 – 15
Blessed (to be envied, happy and prosperous) is the man who endures temptations!
The problem is not really in the temptation that confronts us but in how we respond to the temptation. There is a response to temptations that will leave you happy, envied and prosperous. Could this really be true! How can you respond to your temptation to have this blessed outcome?
Every temptation contains a trial factor. God allows what is in us as His children to be tried and tested. As a good father, he provides an incentive to enable to do well. He says through the mouth/pen of James in James 1: 12:
"… For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him."
The question to you is, “Do you love the Lord so much as to deprive yourself of that which your heart, mind and body crave for by refusing to yield to temptations?” If you do you will enjoy the blessing of life.
To assist us in handling temptation, James is very careful to point us to its origin or source. It would seem to be that something as ‘deadly’ as temptation would come from the Devil. Don’t you think so? James advises is that God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt anyone. So then, where does temptation come from?
“James 1: 14 -15
But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.”
To endure and overcome temptation is to address and eliminate the natural progression:
Eliminate the lust in you through the power of confession to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will destroy the power of temptation!
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