Blessed Temptations

Your flesh is not going to say it. But your new man in Christ, which came into you when you were by Christ's Spirit born again, will say with James what he wrote in chapter 1:12. He wrote, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised them that love Him."

Even as grass, as beautiful as it may look for a time, will fade and become ugly looking, so those who fall in temptations, because they want to be rich with gold and silver and to enjoy what the ungodly enjoy, will, when they die, lose all those riches and be full of the pain and agony of hell.

Fight against the devil and the world. Refuse to walk with them in the field of sin, and you will receive the crown of life, which God promised to those that love Him. What Satan promises you, you will never obtain. He told Adam and Eve that, if they would eat of that forbidden fruit, they would become as gods. They did not. They became like the devil! And here is the beautiful truth that, if we endure, that is, stand unmoved by these temptations, we will enjoy the blessedness of being children of God. We will not become gods, as Satan said. But we will enjoy being like Christ, children of God crowned with everlasting heavenly life.

Temptations are then a blessing for us, because, having by God's grace endured them, we will have a rich reward given us, a reward we would not have gotten, had we not been tempted, and refused to follow Satan's wishes. God tried us as silver tried by fire and perfected us, bringing us to the reward He eternally decreed to give us.

Satan sought our destruction. But God realizes His promise of putting enmity in our hearts against the godless enemy.

We will be, and already are, blessed. Have your eye on what God promised, not upon what Satan, the father of lies, tempts you to do.

Read: Revelation 3:7-13

Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:

II Kings 3 
II Kings 4:1-17 
Acts 14:8-28 
Psalm 140:1-13 
Proverbs 17:22

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Quote for Reflection:
"Let us, then, grasp this fact, that nothing should prevent us worshipping the Lord, even though we no longer have access to His ‘public’ ordinances. How thankful we should be for such a merciful provision in a day like ours. ~ Arthur W. Pink