Concerning Temptation

Temptation is not a sign of failure but a part of spiritual growth. It’s not a sin to be tempted, only to yield to it. Discouragement is a trap, and trusting God with temptation strengthens faith. Enduring temptation leads to spiritual growth and the "crown of life" promised to those who persevere.

Some very big mistakes are made about temptation in this life of faith. First, people expect that, after the soul rests in God, temptations will cease. They believe the promised salvation is from both temptation and being tempted. When they find the Canaanite still in the land, and see the great, walled cities, they are discouraged. They think they must have gone wrong and that this cannot be the true land after all.

Next, they mistakenly see temptation as sin. They blame themselves for it, but it's the enemy's fault.

This leads to condemnation and discouragement. If it continues, it ends in sin. The enemy makes an easy prey of a discouraged soul; so that we fall often from the very fear of having fallen. To solve the first difficulty, I must refer to Scripture. It says the Christian life is a constant warfare. It also says we must, especially when seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, wrestle against spiritual enemies there.

Their power and skill to tempt us must be far superior to any we've ever encountered.

Temptations usually grow tenfold in strength after we start the interior life, not decrease. Their power must not lead us to doubt that we have found the true, abiding place. Strong temptations are generally a sign of great grace, rather than of little grace. When the Israelites first left Egypt, the Lord did not lead them through the Philistines' land, the nearest route. God said, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But, when they learned to trust Him, He allowed their enemies to attack. In their wilderness journey, they met few enemies and fought few battles. In the land, they faced seven great nations and thirty-one kings. They had to conquer walled cities and defeat giants.

They could not have fought the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites until they had entered their land. Your temptations, dear Christian, may prove you are in the land you seek to enter. They are unique to that land. Never let your temptations make you doubt that you are in the promised "heavenly places."

The second mistake is not quite so easy to deal with. It's almost pointless to say that temptation is not sin. Yet, most distress comes from not understanding this. The very suggestion of wrong seems to bring pollution with it. The evil agency not recognized, the poor, tempted soul fears it must be very bad, and far from God, to have had such thoughts. It is as though a burglar broke into a man's house to steal.

When the owner began to resist him, the burglar accused him of being the thief. It is the enemy's clever trick to trap us.

He comes and whispers evil ideas to us: doubts, blasphemies, jealousy, envy, and pride. Then he says, "Oh, how wicked you must be to think of such things!" It is plain that you do not trust the Lord. If you did, these things would not have entered your heart. This reasoning seems true, so the soul accepts it.

It then feels condemned and discouraged. From there, it is easy to fall into sin. One of the most fatal things in the life of faith is discouragement.

One of the most helpful is cheerfulness. A wise man once said that, in overcoming temptations, cheerfulness was the key. It was the first, second, and third thing. We must expect to conquer. That is why the Lord often told Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go ” (Joshua 1:9). And it is also the reason He says to us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John14:27) .

The power of temptation is in the fainting of our own hearts. The enemy knows this. He always tries to discourage us at the start of his assaults, if he can.

Sometimes, we feel discouraged. We think it's righteous grief and disgust at ourselves for being tempted. But it's really an embarrassment . We are ashamed because we secretly congratulated ourselves. We believed our tastes were too pure and our separation from the world too complete for such things to tempt us. We expected something from ourselves. We are disappointed to find it lacking.

As a result, we are discouraged. This embarrassment and discouragement are worse than the temptation. They seem humble, but they only stem from wounded self-love.

True humility can bear to see its own weakness and foolishness revealed. It never expected anything from itself. It knows its only hope must be in God. So, instead of discouraging the soul from trusting, it drives it to a deeper and more utter trust. But counterfeit humility, born of self, plunges the soul into despair. It drives it into the very sin it so despises. I remember once hearing an allegory that illustrated this to me wonderfully. Satan called together a council of his servants to consult how they might make a good man sin. One evil spirit started up and said, “I will make him sin.” “How will you do it?” asked Satan. “I will set before him the pleasures of sin,” was the reply; “I will tell him of its delights and the ri ch rewards it brings.” “Ah,” said Satan, “that will not do; he has tried, it, and knows better than that.”

Then another spirit started up and said, “I will make him sin.”

“What will you do?” asked Satan. “I will tell him of the pains and sorrows of v irtue. I will show him that virtue has no delights, and brings no rewards.” “Ah, no!” exclaimed Satan, “That will not do at all.

He has tried it. He knows, 'wisdom's ways are pleasant, and her paths are peace.' Another said, I will make him sin. And what will you do? Asked Satan, again. I will discourage his soul, was the short reply. Ah, that will do,” cried Satan, “that will do! We shall conquer him now.” And they did. An old writer says, all discouragement is from the devil. I wish every Christian would remember this and keep it as a pocket-piece. We must fly from discouragement as we would from sin. But this is impossible if we fail to recognize the true agency in temptation. For if the temptations are our own fault, we cannot help being discouraged. But they are not.

The Bible says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. ”(James 1:12) It urges us to "count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations." Temptation, therefore, cannot be sin. It is no more a sin to hear evil whispers in our souls than to hear the swearing of bad men as we pass along the street. The sin only comes in either case by our stopping and joining in with them. If, when the wicked thoughts come, we turn from them at once, as we would from wicked talk, and ignore them, we do not sin. But if we carry them on in our minds, and roll them under our tongues, and dwell on them with a half consent of our will to them as true, then we sin.

We may be enticed by evil a thousand times a day without sin, and we cannot help these enticing. But if the enemy can make us think his temptations are our sin, he will have won half the battle. He will then likely win completely.

A dear lady once came to me under great darkness, simply from not understanding this. She had been very happy in her faith for some time. She had been free from temptation, and thought she would never be tempted again. But suddenly a very peculiar form of temptation had assailed her, which had horrified her. She found that the moment she began to pray, dreadful thoughts of all kinds would rush into her mind. She had lived a very sheltered, innocent life. These thoughts seemed so awful to her, that she felt she must be one of the wicked of sinners to have them. She began by thinking she could not have entered into the rest of faith. She ended by concluding that she had never been born again.

Her soul was in an agony of distress.

I told her that these dreadful thoughts were the enemy's doing. He came to her the moment she kneeled in prayer and filled her mind with them. She was not to blame for them at all. She could not help them any more than she could help hearing a wicked man blaspheme in her presence. I urged her to see them as from the enemy. She should not blame or discourage herself. Instead, she should turn to Jesus and commit them to Him. I showed her how much the enemy had gained. They made her think these thoughts were her own. This condemned and discouraged her. I assured her she would win quickly if she ignored them. She should turn her back on them and look to the Lord.

She grasped the truth, and the next time these thoughts came she said to the enemy, “I have found you out now. It is you who are suggesting these dreadful thoughts to me, and I hate them, and will have nothing to do with them. The Lord is my Saviour; take them to Him, and settle them in His presence.”

The baffled enemy, found out, fled in confusion. Her soul was perfectly delivered.

Another thing also. The enemy knows that if a Christian sees a hint of evil as his, he will reject it. He will do so more quickly than if it seems to be his own mind's suggestion. If Satan began each temptation with, "I am Satan, your enemy; I have come to make you sin," we would likely resist. He has to hide himself in order to make his baits attractive. Our victory will be easier if we are not ignorant of his tricks. We must recognize him at his first approach. We also make a mistake about temptations. We think that all time spent fighting them is wasted. Hours pass, and we seem to have made no progress, because we have been so beset with temptations. But, we may have served God more truly during these hours than in our freer times, when we faced fewer temptations.

Temptation is really more the devil’s wrath against God, than against us. He cannot touch our Saviour.

But, he can wound Him by conquering us. Our ruin matters to him only as it does this. So, we fight our Lord's battles when we resist temptation. In these cases, an hour is worth a day's time. We read, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him ."(James 1:12).I am sure this means to endure its continuance and frequent recurrence.

Nothing cultivates the grace of patience like enduring temptation. And, nothing drives the soul to depend on the Lord Jesus like it. And finally, nothing brings more glory to our Lord than the trial of our faith, which comes through many temptations. It is said to be more precious than gold, though tested by fire. We, who endure the trial, shall receive a reward. It is "the crown of life" which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

We cannot wonder at the Holy Ghost's urging at the start of the Book of James: " Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. ”(James 1:2)Temptation is God's tool to complete our perfection. So, the enemy's own weapons are turned against him. We see that all things, even temptations, can work for good to them that love God.

To resist temptations, I don’t need to tell my audience: it is by faith. For this is, of course, the foundation upon which the whole interior life rests. Our one great motto is throughout, “We are nothing, and Christ is all.” A nd always and everywhere we have started to stand, and walk, and overcome, and live by faith. We have found our own helplessness. We cannot help ourselves. Our only way, therefore, is to hand the temptation over to our Lord and trust Him to conquer it for us.

But when we put it into His hands, we must leave it there. We must commit to Him for victory as we did for salvation. He must do all for us in the one case, as completely as in the other. It was faith only then, and it must be faith only now.

The Lord works miracles in conquering the temptations of those who trust Him. Thousands can testify to this. But I cannot expand on this now. I aimed to show temptation in its true light, not to detail the way to overcome it. I want to free good, faithful souls from bondage. They will be trapped if they confuse temptation with sin. They must understand temptation's true nature and use. I want them to know that temptations are vital for our souls' growth. Whatever their source, God uses them to build in us graces of character that would otherwise be missing.

Wherever temptation is, there is God also, superintending and controlling its power. “Where were you, Lord I, while I was being tempted?” cried the saint of the desert. "Close beside you, my son, all the while," was the tender reply. Temptations try us. We are worth nothing if we are not tried. They develop our spiritual strength and courage and knowledge, and our development is the one thing God cries for.

How shallow would all our spirituality be if it were not for temptations? "Blessed is the man who endures temptation. He will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." This "crown of life" will be worth all the trials and endurance it costs to obtain it; without those, it could not be attained.

A sick woman once bought a cocoon . It held a very beautiful butterfly with magnificent wings. She hoped to see it emerge from the cocoon in her chamber. She watched it eagerly as spring drew on.

Finally, she was delighted to see the butterfly beginning to emerge. But it seemed to have great difficulty. It pushed, and strained, and struggled. It made so little headway that she concluded it must need help. With a pair of delicate scissors, she clipped the tight cord that bound the cocoon's opening.

Immediately the cocoon opened wide, and the butterfly escaped without any further struggle. She congratulated herself on her experiment's success. But, something was wrong with the butterfly.

It was all out of the cocoon, it's true. But, its great wings were lifeless and colorless. They dragged behind it, a useless burden. For a few days it lived a miserable sickly life, and then died, without having once lifted its powerless wings. The lady was sorely disappointed and could not understand it. But when she related the circumstance to a naturalist, he told her that it had all been her own fault. That it took just that pushing and struggling to send the life fluid into the wings' veins. Her misguided kindness in shortening the struggle had left the wings lifeless and colorless.

So, our spiritual wings need the struggle of resisting temptation. To save us from it would weaken our souls' power to "mount up with wings as eagles." It would also deny us the "crown of life" promised to those who endure.