Monday,
May 17, 2021
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. James 1:12 - 15
A little boy was watching his Mom make cookies,
LOTS of cookies. He smelled the
delicious chocolate chips melting in the oven.
The last thing Mom did before leaving the kitchen was to warn Junior to
stay away from that cookie jar. When she
came back she caught the little criminal who was up-to-his-eyeballs in
cookies. “I’m sorry, Mom. I just climbed up here to get a look at the
cookies and my teeth got caught on one.”
We smile at that kind of picture, but temptation’s no joke. Consider the downward spiral ride it always
brings:
Desire comes first.
Desire is not sin. God gave us appetites that our lives might be
enriched. Sin is an inappropriate use of
our God-given natural appetites.
Smelling the cookies was a pleasurable experience, but that’s not where
the sin occurred. The suggestion came to
the little boy that the cookies could be his if Mom wasn’t there.
Downward spiral begins! One cookie smell isn’t sin…hanging around to
drool is danger!
Decision follows desire.
Hanging around to “drool over the cookies” is
where decision comes in. The devil never
makes you do anything; he can only suggest how wonderful it would be IF you do
it. When you linger over something you
already know is wrong, you are placing your heart, your commitment to live a
Godly life, at risk. Who isn’t familiar
with David and Bathsheba? David’s sin
began the moment he lingered, watching his neighbor on her rooftop. Then he began to enquire about her. David was a married man, lusting after a
married woman. The downward spiral gave
birth to sin in David’s heart.
Disobedience follows decision.
Many people misunderstand sin at this point. The actions we take are not the beginning of
sins; they are merely the evidence that our hearts are sinful. They are like the measles spots. The spots only alert us to the fact we have
measles; the disease is on the inside.
Desire giving birth to disobedience is quite a
picture. Conception takes place on the
inside. In the text the word used is a
military word which means takes prisoner.
The long look created lust, the lust carries you away, and then you are
its prisoner. Satan’s work is
successful; he handed off the temptation – you accepted it, and are now running
down the field. Your only hope at this
point is to throw the ball to Jesus! The
decision, made in our heart, makes us pregnant with the sin of disobedience to
our Father. And that pregnancy is never
stillborn!
For the little boy with the cookie rap sheet –
his sin didn’t “occur” with the first bite.
It happened when he gave his heart to the chair he used to climb up the
kitchen counter. The step was up, but
the spiral was increasingly down.
Death is the final result.
It’s the payoff!
David’s payoff for his sexual affair with Bathsheba was the
blowing-apart of his family. His kids
lost respect for him. The kingdom God
entrusted to David’s leadership became divided and a civil war erupted. It was chaos.
His sin-fling led him to places he never intended to go!
The downward spiral of sin begins with desire and
ends in death.
For You Today
Be on guard…it’s
a war!
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The
New Living Translation©
Today’s
devotion was first published October 17, 2013
