Understanding temptation and a test

Call To Prayer

Title: Understanding temptation and a test

By: Simon Maina Nuhu

Date: 05.12.2022

^” Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed’‘ (James 1:13-14).

The Lord through the Scripture wants to teach us the need to comprehend the difference between two fundamental issues regarding our earthly journey. These issues are temptation and a test.

A temptation is generally a trial that comes to all men (believers and unbelievers), regardless of race, language, spiritual maturity, or status. It is not necessarily an enticement born out of our human weaknesses or desperate desires, but rather comes with an objective to stray or derail us from God. We are to understand that all forms of temptation are initiated or finalized by the Devil according to the level of our knowledge and situation. Many times temptations come from necessities of life, expectations, ideas, thoughts, relationships, gifts, and our allegiance to certain things in the flesh. No man is above temptation, however, for us believers, we overcome through the help of the Holy Spirit.

The devil being the tempter, is very clever, crafty and cunny, in that he does not come to us face to face but uses the people we trust, our family, brothers, sisters, our emotions, our colleagues, friends or even nature. In the Scripture, there were many ways the Devil tempted people; we see he came to Eve in form of a serpent (Genesis 3: 1-7), he came to Joseph through Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:11-12), he came to Achan through greed (Joshua 7:1), he came to Gehazi through Covetousness (2 Kings 5:20-27), he came to Samson through Delilah (Judges 16:15-18), he came to Peter through fear (Luke 22:54-62), he came to Judas Iscariot through the love of money (John 13:21-27), he came to David through the lustful desire to commit adultery with Uriah’s wife (1 Samuel 11:2-4).

A test comes only from God, and not a temptation. God tests his faithful servants in order to promote them to higher blessings and accessibility according to His will. Many times He tests us with good intentions using what He blessed us with, to evaluate, and ascertain our genuine commitment to His word, promises, and commandments. He tested Abraham’s loyalty to sacrifice Isaac his only son, why? because He wanted to determine the level of obedience of Abraham (Genesis 22:1-14). God tests only His true children to justify their claim of love, commitment, consecration, faith, trust, and faithfulness to Him. He tested Job by giving Devil the approval (Job 1:6-12 ). Also, we see in the scripture, He tested the Rechabites to drink wine (Jeremiah 35:1-20).

In conclusion, all temptations have their origin from the Devil in order to cause us to fall, but God test us (His children) in order to bless us.

Prayer points:

Let’s thank God and also ask Him to help us to be watchful and vigilant.