Adam ate the fruit. Moses struck the rock. Jonah headed for Tarshish. Judas betrayed Jesus and Peter denied Christ, not once, but three times. These and many other characters of the Bible have at least one thing in common, they all had decisions to make, most of which were either bad or wrong.
Life is full of choices and as such we are all products of our own decisions. The Lord declares through His written Word,
. . .that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. . . [Deuteronomy 30:19 KJV]
At the root of life and death lies temptation. Christ even suffered the temptation of Satan for forty days while fasting the entire time [1]. Now I am aware that we, as Christians, involve Christ in our daily decision making to guide our life, but the decisions that I want to address is in this and these two blogs are those that lead to disobedience and separation from God.
Temptation
Remember that Christ set before us life and death and that we are to choose between the two. In fact, if we follow Christ, we will choose daily between them [2]. Some decisions we make in a split second without thinking, while others we defiantly think about with premeditation. Therefore, it behooves us to take Philippians 4:8 and Matthew 12:34 to heart [3].
We all make wrong decisions in our lives and every day we can either eat the fruit or not eat the fruit [4]. We can either strike the rock or speak to the rock [5]. We can either go to Nineveh or we can head for Tarshish [6]. Because of free will, the decision is all ours.
It’s hard to do the right thing every day all the time and for that, you can thank Adam and the sin-nature [7]. However, you can thank Christ because He is not only our advocate before the Father [8] but He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins [9]. He also totally understands our plight and the strength of temptation [10] because He was tempted in all ways just as we are, only without sin.
Man has many ways in which he separates himself from God: fear, guilt, shame, regret, contention, bitterness, resentment, anger, hate, lust, jealousy, doubt, unbelief, filthy language, gossip, back-biting, and ad infinitum.
However, having said that, Satan basically has four ways in which he tempts man, The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life [11], and “. . .Hath God said [12]?”
So, when we get into that predicament of having to choose to either eat the fruit or not to eat the fruit, what do we do? In fact, what can we do when confronted with temptation and the fiery darts of the enemy? Especially when it is something that seems to be benign or pleasurable to experience and we know to be against God’s will.
What is the solution?
* * *
NOTE: There are many books written on the subject of decision and obedience but there are some things about their foundation that only requires a basic knowledge of some decision making processes and Scriptures that can deliver us from the enemy’s attacks. I pray that it will help you in renewing your mind [13] and help you to stave off the attack of the enemy that separates us from God.
___________________________________
[1] Matthew 4:1
[2] Luke 9:23
[3] Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; Titus 3:2, 3; 1 Peter 2:1 and on and on.
[4] Genesis 2:16, 17
[5] Numbers 20:8; 20:10, 11
[6] Jonah 1:1-3
[7] Thank you indeed, Adam, because without your disobedience, there’d be no need for the redemption through Jesus Christ
[8] 1 John 2:1
[9] 1 John 1:9
[10] Matthew 26:41; Hebrews 4:15
[11] Genesis 3:6; 1 John 2:16
[12] Genesis 3:1
[13] Romans 12:1, 2
No comments:
Post a Comment