2024-08-04 Temptation

Well, we are continuing our series on the / / prayer & fasting and have come to a verse we are going to split into two weeks. Let’s read through the prayer that Jesus is using as a model, or a teaching ground for how we should pray. Reading from Matthew 6:9-13:

/ / “Pray then like this:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

** For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

I was reading something this week that put what we were talking about last week into some perspective and gave some really good insight. First of all, a couple weeks ago, we looked at vs 11, Give us this day our daily bread, gives us the indication, in two ways, “this day” and “daily bread” that / / Jesus is inviting us into a life of prayer on a daily basis. Both, that we are meant to pray every day, and that we should pray this way, with this as a model.

Now, the Jewish culture was already in a well known rhythm of prayer, three times a day where they would pray short, but powerful and meaningful prayers. So, this wasn’t something necessarily new, but, what I read that stuck out to me was the connection between this idea of praying everyday and the forgiveness we talked about last week.

When Jesus says, / / “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” not only is he being pretty straight forward that we must forgive, especially when you add vs 14-15, / / “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” So we know he’s serious about this, but the bigger picture I saw this past week was that Jesus is giving us a heads up, and I’m sorry if this is news to you, but, / / “You might mess up often!”

Sure, you might need to forgive OTHER people every day. That’s what this prayer is inviting, right? A daily position before God in prayer, that includes / / forgiveness toward others who have hurt us. BUT, it also includes / / ASKING for forgiveness everyday.

How many people come to God in repentance every day? Honestly.

Do we take seriously our misdeeds, our ‘sin’, our inability to live in perfection? Now, this can swing too hard one way. I remember growing up and getting “saved” every alter call. I felt like a dirty rat every time they did an alter call and felt like I needed to respond. Was I saved, was I not saved. I better go up and be sure. Just in case I die tonight, where am I going? That was a heavy burden to carry. And I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying here.

But listen to what he DOES say in Luke 17:1-4, / / “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

So, in some ways he could be answering Peter’s question again, in a different way, “How many times do I have to forgive someone who sins against me? Is seven enough?” But also, look at the connection here between repentance and forgiveness. If one repents, they must be forgiven. Now, take that for yourself in your life. / / If you repent, you are forgiven.

What was the message that we saw Jesus start preaching at the very beginning of his ministry? Remember Matthew 4, right before we get to the sermon on the mount in chapters 5-7. Jesus comes back from the wilderness after being tempted by the devil and Matthew 4:17 says, / / From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

/ / Repentance is at the center of the Kingdom!

So briefly, what does it mean to repent? So we can be forgiven!

/ / repent is the greek word metanoeo, and it means “to think differently or afterwards, to reconsider, to change one’s mind, or change one’s mind for the better - heartily, to amend with abhorrance of one’s past sins.

So, true repentance is changing your mind from desiring what your flesh wants, to focusing on what God wants. It is to come to a place where you abhor, or strongly dislike, even hate, your former life, the sins of your past.

Does sin give you a bad taste in your mouth?

Or do you look at your past with fond memories?

Ever met someone that just loves telling you about their ‘glory days’, but their glory days are usually just the deeds of a misspent youth. Are we cheering for our sinful lives? It shouldn’t be a point of pride.

And what does Paul say about this? Romans 12:1-2, / / And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

I don’t know if I’ve met anyone who wouldn’t truly love to know God’s will for their life. I mean, truly, if you believe God exists, and you believe he’s good, and you believe he has plans for you, then I would suggest most of us would love to know what those plans are. It would make life easier, wouldn’t it. And Paul is saying here that the will of God for our lives is good and pleasing and perfect. I want that. But that’s step three!

/ / Give your bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice

Or, let’s say that a different way, in the words of Jesus, Matthew 16:24, / / “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

/ / Let God transform you by changing the way you think

Or, let’s say that a different way, in the words of Jesus, Matthew 4:17, / / “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

/ / Know the will of God for your life, which is good and pleasing and perfect

At the center of the kingdom of heaven is coming to God with a heart and attitude of repentance, seeking forgiveness and a change of heart and mind by the power of the Holy Spirit!

And Jesus is saying, “Listen, One day I will make you perfect, but today is not that day, so get used to praying this everyday, ‘Please, forgive me as I forgive those who hurt me.’”

Last week we really focused on the ‘forgiving others’ part, but this is a call to repentance just as much as it’s a call to forgiveness. Because these are the words of repentance. Sure, in church, when we lead someone in prayer, we often say, “I repent of my sins”, but what would we normally say, if we weren’t talking “Christianese”, and just in normal conversation? We would say, “Would you forgive me.” This is the language of repentance, a daily request for the God of the universe, your Abba, who is loving and kind and compassionate, and your Father who is the God of all Creation, infinitely powerful and strong, to do a mighty work only He can do, change your heart and mind!

This is another reminder of our posture before God. Not that we are useless worms before an all powerful God, but that we are not God, and we are willing to recognize that without God we have nothing and are nothing. Life ends without God. John 1:3 says, / / God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.

/ / God is the One who gives and sustains life!

So, can I suggest this to you this morning, that when we pray, every time we pray, every day, we come with an attitude and the words of, “God, would you continue to change my heart and my mind to be more like you. If there is anything in me that is displeasing, still sinful, still holding on to my past life. I lay it on the alter of repentance today, as a sacrifice. I want my life to serve you and you alone. I want my life to be free from sin. I want my life to be free from the bondage and desires of this world.”

Alright, so, what we will be looking at today will be the first half of the last verse of the Lord’s prayer, not including the extra bit that is contested, whether or not it should be included or not. And I would love to get into it, but for sake of time I’ll leave it with this thought. Each of the statements from Matthew 6:13b, which in some translations is left out, have already been said. So they neither add nor take away from the rest of the passage. They simply reaffirm what Jesus has already said. / / “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” We’re praying for the kingdom, we’re praying for his provision, inviting his power and we are praising his mighty name. And Amen simply means, “Let it be so!”

So, that’s the back half of vs 13, if the version of the bible you are reading has it, but today we are going to focus on the first half of the first half. So, in the ESV that we are reading through this passage in, Matthew 6:13 says, / / And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

So, we are going to look at the first half of that this morning, / / And lead us not into temptation...

First, as you know sometimes I like to kind of start here, with some interesting english translations of scripture. Most translations say either “And lead us not into temptation” or “And do not lead us into temptation”.

The NLT says, / / And don’t let us yield to temptation…

The CEV says, Keep us from being tempted…

God’s Word Translation, / / Don’t allow us to be tempted...

The GNT says, Do not bring us to hard testing…

And the last one I’ll read, which I find particularly interesting, is the New Revised Standard Version which says, / / And do not bring us to the time of trial.

So, the first question I want to ask this morning is:

/ / Why make this request?

Why is Jesus telling us to ask God not to lead us into temptation, like there’s some possibility that he would? Does God do this? Does God tempt us? Does he lead us into places and times of temptation? And for what purpose? To test our faith, our commitment, our resolve? To see if we’ll fail? To see if we’ll succeed?

First, let’s look at the word and see what we’re dealing with.

This word, / / temptation, is the greek word peirasmos, and it means a putting to proof, either by way of an experiment (in the good sense), or by way of experience (in the bad sense). by implication, it is experiencing adversity.

Now, the english definition of / / temptation means the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.

But do you notice that the definition of peirasmos doesn’t say anything about our desire?

So, I want you to see something here. If we read this scripture with the english definition of the english word, temptation, we will think Jesus is saying, “Lead us not into the desire to do something wrong or unwise.” “God, please don’t give me a desire to do something wrong.” Now, does that even make sense? Does God give us desire for wrongdoing? Does God try to trick us into doing what is wrong?

I mean, that makes no sense at all. Look at the entire story of the bible, it is invitation, after invitation, after invitation to follow God toward life by doing what is RIGHT.

So, we can’t really use the english definition of “temptation”, but we must use the definition of peirasmos, which means, something is getting put through a proofing. What’s that mean?

For that, let’s look at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

Matthew 4:1-11 tells the story of Jesus being led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God to be tempted by the devil. The word is peirazo, which is where peirasmos comes from.

Ok, so let’s read this and see what happens here.

/ / Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

“Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

So, we aren’t going to get too into this passage of scripture too deep today. We might get into it a bit more next week as we look at the second half of Matthew 6:13, “deliver us from evil…” but for today I want you to see, not how Jesus handles the temptation of the devil, even though it’s this short little masterclass on the importance of knowing scripture, and interpreting it correctly. But what really matters, especially for today, as we look at, “And lead us not into temptation…” is what’s going on here.

First, / / why does the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil?

That’s what Matthew 4:1 says, right? I looked up the different translations, I don’t think I’ve seen a verse so evenly translated across every translation. They all say “led by the Spirit” and they all say “to be tempted by the devil”, although slightly varied ways, they are all almost exactly the same.

So, there’s a couple reasons I want to suggest that Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

/ / 1. To identify with humanity

Hebrews 4:15 says, / / This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

So, what is this testing that Jesus went through? What’d the devil tempting him with?

Shortcut, Shortcut, Shortcut… that’s what these temptations are:

Are You hungry? Stop the fast, stop this foolishness, turn that stone into bread.

You want to show people who you really are? Jump off this building. Show them your miracles…

You want the power to rule the world? Kneel down and I’ll give you power. Right here, right now.

Each one of these is an invitation to stop following God’s direction, and take a shortcut. But what does Jesus say in Matthew 7:13-14? The gateway to life is narrow and hard, the road to destruction is wide and easy and most people choose it.

Hebrews 4:15 says something very powerful about Jesus in his humanity on this earth that HE is willing to go through what WE will go through to fully identify with the same suffering of humanity. And it also shows us that WE can fully identify with HIS humanity.

Jesus calls us to follow him, but what’s the point if he’s walking a road that we can’t relate to?

We’ve all had that friend that’s said to us, “I know what you’re going through..” When we know, in fact, they don’t actually know what we are going through. And although we appreciate the effort, we see through the words and it does not bring the comfort they intended.

Jesus walks alongside us and can actually say, “I get it…I know it’s hard… but trust me, you can do it. And I know you can, because my Father sent me the Spirit to get me through it too, and you have the same Spirit living inside of you!”

Romans 8:11, / / The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you…

Jesus did not step into this earth as God alone, he stepped into this earth fully human. Now, I do not believe you can disconnect God the Son from the body of Jesus Christ in human form. This is our doctrinal belief, that Jesus was fully God and fully man, but in choosing that fully man part, he subjected himself to the full human experience. He didn’t come out as a full grown, miracle working, fully aware and capable god-child. He came out as a baby, crying in a manger, under the threat of death, having to flee to Egypt, with parents relying on dreams and visions from angels to lead them and guide them. Jesus was incapable of protecting himself.

And when he grew up, even though he was fully capable, he chose the human life.

Does Jesus need to fast to prove anything? No, but he did.

Did Jesus need to get baptized? Probably not, yet he did.

Did Jesus need to be obedient to his parents? He’s God. He created his parents…yet, he subjected himself to their authority.

So Hebrews gives us big insight into the leading and guiding of Jesus Christ in our lives, that he can relate to us in our suffering because he subjected himself to the same. He did not hide behind his divinity, his being God, but he embraced the entire human experience.

Philippians 2:5-8 says, / / You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

He didn’t just take on the human experience, but he experienced the worst that humanity has to offer in his suffering.

/ / 2. To identify himself as the Son of God

The second reason I think Jesus allowed this ‘temptation’ was to identify himself as the Son of God. Now, he’s alone in the wilderness, so this is not for humanities sake, but I’m quite sure all of the spiritual world is watching and waiting.

Think about it. What has just happened? Jesus was baptized by John, comes up out of the water, the heavens are opened, the Holy Spirit descends on Him and out of heaven a voice is heard, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Who heard that? We aren’t sure. Just Jesus? John? Matthew who wrote it - probably not, he’s not following Jesus yet, so he’s probably sitting in a tax collectors booth still? Maybe everyone at the baptism? But, I’m not so sure it actually matters. I would suggest maybe more than just Jesus heard it, and I say that because Matthew writes, / / And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” He didn’t write that Jesus heard, “You are my son…” Which leads me to believe that God was identifying Jesus to the people around him. Even if it was just to John the Baptist.

But here’s the real point about this temptation.

I say this is more about Jesus identity as the Son of God than about the individual temptations,

Bread from a stone. That’s not an issue for Jesus.

Jump off a building… honestly, Luke talks about a moment where an entire village of people push Jesus to the edge of a cliff to throw him over and Luke 4:30 simply says,/ / But passing through their midst, he went away. Jesus is miraculous by nature. I don’t really think there’s anything that he cannot do.

But this isn’t actually about that. It’s about his identity. It’s about the proving that is happening.

So what’s the question?

Matthew 4:3, …the devil came and said to him, / / “IF you are the Son of God…”

Matthew 4:6, …the devil took him to the holy city…and said, / / “IF you are the Son of God…”

Matthew 4:9, obviously seeing Jesus was quite confident in his identity, he tries to switch tactics and says, / / “I will give it all to you [the kingdoms of the world], if you will kneel down and worship me.

The devil is testing his humanity, and Jesus is proving that He’s God. So the devil is testing how much humanity do you have in there? Can I play on that? Can I offer you the easy way, and will you take it?

And the response of Jesus shows, “I am the Son of God…”

Here’s the point - the “temptation” is not the bread, the jump off the Temple, or the kingdoms…the “temptation” or as we saw by it’s definition, what is being “proved” - Are you really the son of God?

/ / The biggest temptation you will face is, “Do you know who you are?”

And it may come in forms that test your fortitude in all sorts of different ways, but the underlying question will be, “Do you know who you are?”

When you know your identity as a Son or Daughter of God. When you know your identity as a disciple of Jesus, and you are committed to live in this way then the temptation isn’t about getting you to slip up for a moment, it’s about getting you to question your identity. Remember what Philippians 2 said, / / You must have the same attitude as Christ had… know who you are!

Then, when the temptation comes, instead of crushing you, it will prove to you through your decisions that you are who you say you are. That you are who God says you are. That you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus.

When temptation comes, and you give in, you identify with your flesh.

Jesus could have taken a stone, turned it into bread and eaten it and been satisfied for a moment. I for one, don’t think I would blame him. But he didn’t. Why? Because the testing wasn’t about bread, it was about his identity.

And I wonder, maybe, when Jesus says that when we pray we should include, “And lead us not into temptation”, is he maybe hinting at our humanity, at our pride? Because the word is proving. And so he’s saying, “Ask God to NOT lead you to a place of proving…”

Don’t invite the temptation. Don’t invite the trial or the testing, the proving.

So, we need to ask the question:

/ / Is it a temptation, a trial or a test?

I think understanding what we are going through will help us lean into God in the right ways.

/ / 1. Temptation.

This is why I suggest that maybe Jesus is talking to our pride. See, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested, or tempted, to prove that He is the Son of God. And I don’t mean prove like, “he’s the big man, proving himself.” but that the temptation does the proving. That’s the word. The moment proves what you are. This is why we stress test things, to see what their breaking point is. And so there’s a bit of a double play on that word.

/ / You can try to prove yourself in your own strength, or a situation simply proves who you are as you act according to your true identity.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13 says, / / If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations [provings] in your life are not different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

You will have moments of proving. Don’t go looking for them. And Jesus is saying, “Pray you don’t experience them at all.” Be happy to know your identity by faith, but, when this proving comes, be led by the Spirit, not in your own strength.

If you are led by your own strength, you will fall. That’s what Paul is saying. You will prove your humanity.

If you are led by the Spirit, and if God does lead you to a time of proving, like Jesus in the wilderness, it’s not about your own strength, it’s about your identity in Christ, your God given identity as a child of God, and don’t look at the moment, look at the bigger picture.

It’s not the bread, it’s, are you a Son? Are you a daughter?

Will this moment be proof of your humanity, or your connection to divinity?

Jesus, at the end of his life, he’s in the garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, and he takes Peter, James and John a bit further with him to pray, and they keep falling asleep. And Jesus says in Matthew 26:40-41, / / “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

Spirit & Body…. interesting, right? And that temptation is the word peirasmos, to test, to prove. So Jesus is saying, lean into the Spirit, not your flesh. The flesh proves your humanity, the spirit proves more!

So, I want to address this question of / / “Does God tempt us?” or “Does God lead us into temptation?”

Paul said in 1 Corinthians that God won’t lead you to something you’re not ready for and will provide for you a way out. Which means, sometimes the answer is walking away, not trying to endure through something.

If you’re on a diet, don’t go sit at the Golden Coral just to prove you can do it.

If you’re an alcoholic, don’t go sit in a bar, to show how strong you are.

If you’re tempted to cheat on your wife, or your husband, don’t hang around the wrong places, or the wrong people, don’t entertain the conversations or situations, just because you think you’re ‘strong enough’, it’s no big deal, or you can handle it.

/ / Sometimes the best plan of action is being strong enough to walk away. That is strength. That is honor. That is humility. And That’s what Paul said, When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. Endurance involves walking away, not gritting your teeth and showing how strong you are, that’s leaning on your own strength and he says in that, we’ll fall.

Second thought on that, James 1:12-15 says, / / God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

So, what do I really think Jesus is saying in the Lord’s prayer?

Don’t go looking for tests you don’t need to take. Don’t ask God to bring it on. But, ask God to deliver you from it. Ask God to prepare you, but if there’s any way you don’t need to go through it, let that be the case.

Now, he’s teaching people that actually went through things that took their lives. When we think of temptation we think of the danish on the plate by the coffee maker, or the girl or guy in the next cubicle, or the website we shouldn’t go to, or the shopping we shouldn’t do. The first disciples of Jesus were killed for their faith.

So, every day, ask God to not lead you down a road of proving. Jesus did. In the garden he prayed that if there was any other way to fulfill his mission, he would gladly take that. BUT, he would rather fulfill the will of God, than give into his own flesh, his human desire.

/ / 2. Testing

Is testing different than temptation, or proving?

James 1:12 that we just read, says, / / God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.

He also says earlier in vs 3, / / For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

The word testing in those verses was used as a way of saying, “Does this measure up?”

When you are tested, by any situation, do you measure up?

Now, here’s the thing. You have a choice.

/ / The quality of who you are WILL come through when you are tested. But, if you have decided that you are pursuing God for change then in those moments you’re leaning into God. Remember what Jesus said, the spirit is willing, it’s the flesh that’s weak. Don’t let the flesh win.

Make the choice today, so that when the moment comes, you already know what you’re going to do.

I see this in the world of addiction. If you don’t have a plan, you’re doomed to fail. I just spent a week at Disney, and what I was allowed to eat was few and far between walking through those parks. If I didn’t pre-plan, I would have been in serious trouble.

So that testing, to show what I’m made of. Do I measure up, had two choices.

Preemptive and in the moment.

Preemptively I did not wait until I got to the park to see what I could have for breakfast. No, I ate before we left.

And preemptively I took with me food I could eat, just in case there was nothing I could buy.

In the Moment, I had a decision to make. Because the choices were abundant. But having preemptively made certain decisions helped me make the right ones in the moment.

It’s the same with anything in any area of our lives.

We make choices today that determine what the outcome of our day will be.

If you don’t determine today that you are 100% faithful to your spouse, then when you have opportunity to entertain conversation, flirting, whatever, you’ll question.

If you don’t determine today that your body is worth investing in, then when you get to the grocery store, the restaurant, the fridge in your own home, and you are given an opportunity to make a flesh based decision, even though the spirit is willing, the flesh will be weak and ready to win.

If you don’t determine today that you are going to dedicate that time to prayer and reading scripture, then when the alarm goes off in the morning, sleep will be more interesting.

The choices we make today, understanding who we are, understanding who God has called us to, help us in the moments of decision.

James 1:8 says, / / A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. (KJV)

The NLT says, / / Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

So, “Lead us not into temptation, into testing…” I’m not looking for it. But prepare me, so that when it does come, I am ready.

And the last one this morning

/ / 3. Trial

Ok, let’s just call this the world being the world, humans being humans, sin having it’s way in our broken and fallen society. Or, let’s say, “Life happens”.

I think, there are two ways we experience trial.

Intentional and unintentional.

There is an element that there are those in this world that will actively persecute people for their faith. That happens. Less in our country than most others. But it still happens. We experience that.

But I want to focus here on what is unintentional, or what I said, “Life happens.”

Things we can’t explain, we wish we could, but we can’t, they make us question our faith, they make us question God, they make us question so much. Why does our friends daughter have cancer? Why did a parent die? Why did we lose our job? Why did our rent go up, our mortgage, our insurance? Why is inflation so bad? Why did I stub my toe? Why did I crush my hand right before I really needed to be healthy?

Anything from small to large, things we can not predict, but they happen, and when they happen we want to shout at the sky, “WHY?!?!?!?!”

Jesus says in John 16:33, after explaining that he has to go away, but that the Holy Spirit will come, that things are going to get bad, but he’s going to come back. He says, / / “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Trial and sorrow will come.

But James said what? James 1:2-4, / / When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow.

What did Paul say? Romans 5:3, / / We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we now that they help us develop endurance.

What does Peter say? 1 Peter 4: 12-14, 16, / / Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad - for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you… it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name.

These are guys who knew real trial and suffering, yet they held their heads up high, not in their own strength, but by leaning on their faith in Jesus Christ, the Love of God the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, when you pray, pray like this, “God, we don’t want temptation, trial or testing. Lead us away from those things. But, when they do come, and it seems they will, prepare us, give us endurance, show us the way out, the way around, the way through, so we do not fall. Keep us from propping ourselves up in our own strength. Help us see you rather than us. And we make a decision today, that no matter the temptation, the trial or the testing, that we put our faith, and our hope in you, the one who endured all suffering, who took on human flesh and identifies with our own inabilities of humanity, yet you did not sin, you endured, you were faithful to follow your Father. Help us do the same as we endeavor to follow you by the leading of the Holy Spirit in the Love of God.”