"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man." - 1 Corinthians 10:13
"The word 'temptation has come down in the world; we are apt to use it wrongly. Temptation is not sin, it is the thing we are bound to meet if we are men. Not to be tempted would be to be beneath contempt. Many of us however, suffer from temptations from which we have no business to suffer, simply because we have refused to let God lift us to a higher plane where we would face temptations of another order.
A man's disposition on the inside, i.e., what he possess in his personality, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the nature of the one tempted, and reveals the possibilities of the nature. Every man has the setting of his own temptation, and temptation will come along the line of the ruling disposition.
Temptation is a suggested short-cut to the realization at which I aim - not toward what I understand as evil, but what I understand as good. Temptation is something that completely baffles me for a while, I do not know if the thing is right or wrong. Temptation yielded to is lust deified, and is a proof that it was timidity that prevented the sin before.
Temptation is not something we may escape, it is essential to the full-orbed life of a man. Beware lest you think you are tempted as no one else is tempted; what you go through is the common inheritance of the race, not something no one ever went through before. God does not save us from temptations; He succors us in the midst of them (Hebrews 2:18)."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Thought:
If temptation comes along the lines of one's ruling disposition and it fits the nature of the one tempted, then can the nature of the temptation point to the possibilities that exist in our personality? If I am tempted by a lack of self control, does that mean I have the potential for self control? If I am tempted by pride, does that mean I have the potential of reputation and honor? If I am tempted by fear, does that mean I have to potential of of courage?
If I thought of myself in terms of what potential I might have based on the temptations I suffer instead of seeing myself through the lens of my temptations - lack of self control, proud, fearful - how might that change my life?
And giving in to them becomes a habit, just as pushing away from them.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, John - Anything become a habit, practice unthinkingly enough.
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