from our good friend Jim White

A word from the Word: “Seasons of Temptation”
Scripture: Luke 4.1-15

Verse for the day: Luke 4.13 “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.“
Galatians 6.1 "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;”

Temptation is a common experience, and our batting average for resisting it is not always impressive. Our experiences are a lot like the seat belts on cars a few years ago. If we did not fasten them, that infernal buzzer kept annoying us. We knew that the seat belts were not made to hurt us or unnecessarily restrict us. They were there to keep us safe, and the buzzer was our friend. But instead of doing what we knew was probably best for us, we would stick the belts behind us, fasten them and thus shut off the buzzer that was reminding us to do the safe thing.

Christians know deep down inside what is right. We even know that the right thing is the best thing for us. And God coaches us from the inside with His "buzzer," the Holy Spirit, to help us resist temptation. But we often choose to ignore the buzzer and look for a way to shut it off. We ignore God's signal and follow our own, even though experience shows us that things get messed up when we do not listen to Him. We need to understand a little more about how Satan uses temptation and how we can win the battle. An understanding of the kinds of strategies Satan uses to defeat us can help us overcome temptation.

There are several principles about temptation for us to think about:
1. Satan is always looking to tempt us to sin, to discouragement, or to loss of our testimony.
2. Satan ALWAYS lies to us.
3. When Satan tempts, God ALWAYS limits him and provides our escape.
4. We (mature believers) have a responsibility to encourage and restore slipping believers.

God has warned (as our experience has warned us) that Satan in the “Master Deceiver” and he has a whole pouch of tools at his disposal, but we have the promise of God found in I John 4.4 that God within us is “greater than he that is in the world”.

TEMPTATION COMES BOTH EXTERNALLY AND INTERNALLY
BUT NOT ETERNALLY!