Morning Meditation
The Devil Made Me Do It
No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. James 1:13-15
We should never say that God is tempting us. God allows in His sovereignty men to be tempted because of the inheritance we received from our first father Adam in The Fall, a sinful nature.
In knowing that we can never blame God for our temptations we should also not consider every temptation a personal attack from satan. What I mean is that every time we are tempted and/or fall we should not assume the, "satan is just attacking me" attitude.
James tells us that each person is tempted "WHEN he is drawn away and entice by HIS OWN DESIRES." More often than not it is the sinful nature and the love of the world in us that draws us and entices us away from abiding in Christ every moment. This is not to say that satan is not involved and even pleased when the results of this enticement are failure.
But it is a heavy handed presumption to think that every trouble in life is an attack from satan.
Since sin entered the world in Genesis 3 we have been able to say, "that's life," or "life happens." Of course what we mean is things are always going to happen that we don't expect or like. We are always getting sick at the wrong time, dealing with troublesome people in our jobs, having arguments with our families and meeting the one guy on the daily commute that will inspire a moment of road rage. Before Genesis 3, these things were not to be expected. "Life happens" was not the mantra but instead, "Eternal life happens." Before Genesis 3 Adam did not even sweat when tending the Garden. He did not have one weed or thorn to hinder the growth of beautiful fruit.
So when we associate everything that goes wrong in the day with a direct attack from satan we are presuming to much. We are presuming that satan is omniscient which he is not. We are presuming that he is omnipresent which he is not. But most of all we are presuming that we are so much of a threat to satan that he is literally sweating trying to think up new ideas to personally attack all of us individually. This is not the case.
Think of it this way. The serpent tempted Eve and Eve gave the forbidden fruit to Adam (which he did not refuse.) A proper response the the serpents temptation would have been, "God told us that we could not eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, but that is fine, in fact it's great because look at all the other trees in the garden that He has provided for us."
Instead all the serpent did was direct Eve's attention to the one thing that she did not have and was not allowed to do. Her own desires enticed her and gave birth to sin.
The inheritance of a sinful nature combined with the fact that satan is the prince of this world make for the natural, "things go wrong" life that we live. The devil spends more time trusting our sinful nature to do it's job. He trusts that our own wicked desires will be his employees and those desires will get the job done even when he is not around. I would imagine that he spends most of his time worried about the true new convert who has been radically changed and is quickly assimilating into a life of servitude to their Lord. The more that we have died to self and live to Christ the less impact satan has on our lives. It's not that trouble, temptations and sin do not continue, but simply that the mature believer lacks nothing as James says earlier in the same chapter. The mature believer considers all trials to be a test of endurance and a wonderful blessing to suffer for the sake of Christ. The mature believer certainly doesn't blame satan for every stumble and fall but knows that their heart can be deceitfully wicked and that their body, mind and will must be put under the full submission to Jesus Christ our Savior.
God never tempts us according to James 1:13-15. However the other ditch we fall into is to believe that satan is always the source of our attacks. While this is true sometimes, more often than not we should question our own desires to see if they are wicked or righteous. We should examine our own motives to make sure they are pure and in line with the will of God. And we should examine our maturity in Christ by whether we take any responsibility for our sinful nature or if, like a child, like Adam and Eve, we easily shift the blame and say, "The devil made me do it."
No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. James 1:13-15
We should never say that God is tempting us. God allows in His sovereignty men to be tempted because of the inheritance we received from our first father Adam in The Fall, a sinful nature.
In knowing that we can never blame God for our temptations we should also not consider every temptation a personal attack from satan. What I mean is that every time we are tempted and/or fall we should not assume the, "satan is just attacking me" attitude.
James tells us that each person is tempted "WHEN he is drawn away and entice by HIS OWN DESIRES." More often than not it is the sinful nature and the love of the world in us that draws us and entices us away from abiding in Christ every moment. This is not to say that satan is not involved and even pleased when the results of this enticement are failure.
But it is a heavy handed presumption to think that every trouble in life is an attack from satan.
Since sin entered the world in Genesis 3 we have been able to say, "that's life," or "life happens." Of course what we mean is things are always going to happen that we don't expect or like. We are always getting sick at the wrong time, dealing with troublesome people in our jobs, having arguments with our families and meeting the one guy on the daily commute that will inspire a moment of road rage. Before Genesis 3, these things were not to be expected. "Life happens" was not the mantra but instead, "Eternal life happens." Before Genesis 3 Adam did not even sweat when tending the Garden. He did not have one weed or thorn to hinder the growth of beautiful fruit.
So when we associate everything that goes wrong in the day with a direct attack from satan we are presuming to much. We are presuming that satan is omniscient which he is not. We are presuming that he is omnipresent which he is not. But most of all we are presuming that we are so much of a threat to satan that he is literally sweating trying to think up new ideas to personally attack all of us individually. This is not the case.
Think of it this way. The serpent tempted Eve and Eve gave the forbidden fruit to Adam (which he did not refuse.) A proper response the the serpents temptation would have been, "God told us that we could not eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, but that is fine, in fact it's great because look at all the other trees in the garden that He has provided for us."
Instead all the serpent did was direct Eve's attention to the one thing that she did not have and was not allowed to do. Her own desires enticed her and gave birth to sin.
The inheritance of a sinful nature combined with the fact that satan is the prince of this world make for the natural, "things go wrong" life that we live. The devil spends more time trusting our sinful nature to do it's job. He trusts that our own wicked desires will be his employees and those desires will get the job done even when he is not around. I would imagine that he spends most of his time worried about the true new convert who has been radically changed and is quickly assimilating into a life of servitude to their Lord. The more that we have died to self and live to Christ the less impact satan has on our lives. It's not that trouble, temptations and sin do not continue, but simply that the mature believer lacks nothing as James says earlier in the same chapter. The mature believer considers all trials to be a test of endurance and a wonderful blessing to suffer for the sake of Christ. The mature believer certainly doesn't blame satan for every stumble and fall but knows that their heart can be deceitfully wicked and that their body, mind and will must be put under the full submission to Jesus Christ our Savior.
God never tempts us according to James 1:13-15. However the other ditch we fall into is to believe that satan is always the source of our attacks. While this is true sometimes, more often than not we should question our own desires to see if they are wicked or righteous. We should examine our own motives to make sure they are pure and in line with the will of God. And we should examine our maturity in Christ by whether we take any responsibility for our sinful nature or if, like a child, like Adam and Eve, we easily shift the blame and say, "The devil made me do it."
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