Wednesday, March 19 || TO BE TEMPTED IS NOT SIN, BUT TO SURRENDER IS!

Read : James 1: 12-16

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

- Matthew 6:13

Imagine a fish. When it sees a bait it moves toward it thinking that it is a meal, but it gets hooked and ultimately loses its life. Temptation is like that. We think that sin will satisfy us and give us something good. But, instead it hooks us and drags us to destruction. As children of God, if we want to live godly lives, we must learn to resist the temptations that come to us from the world, the flesh and the devil. Temptation in itself is not sin. Only when we welcome it, dwell on it and enjoy it, it develops into sin. For example, the temptation to take revenge on someone who has hurt us becomes “a sin” only when we begin to think about ways to harm that person and put them into action - to get revenge. We must resist the temptation in the beginning itself because if we allow it to grow, it will lead to our own destruction. We all must have seen a small tree growing out of a concrete crevice, where it split the concrete. First it began as a tiny seed falling into the crevice. But, since the seed had life in it, the life produced a tree, which gradually broke up the concrete itself. Sin too has such power to destroy us.

Dear friends, let us not be deceived. If we fall into sins bait, we are on the course that leads to death. Only by relying on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we can resist temptation and come out victoriously. Let our Lord Jesus Christ be our great example and teacher. He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sinning. (Hebrews 4:15)