The Wrong Temptation

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man."
1 Corinthians 10:13

Consider these comments from Mr. Chambers:

"Many of us . . . 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 possesses 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 . . .

Temptation is the suggested short-cut to the realization of the highest at which I aim--not towards what I understand as evil, but towards what I understand as good . . . Temptation yielded to is lust deified . . .

Temptation is not something we may escape, it is essential to the full-orbed life of a man . . . God does not save us from temptations; He succours us in the midst of them (Heb 2:18)."


My first reaction: Do I refuse to let my temptations go? That is, do I hold on to them and snuggle up to the security blanket of reasons why these temptations befall me? Without the temptations that I am used to, I lose the age-old story of how I came to be. I lose the excuses of my childhood, the hurts that made the temptations interesting in the first place.

So goes the cycle -- temptation, resist (or not), failure, guilt, excuses (or, even worse, the blame shift with out actually saying it: "God, what am I missing? What is the deal? Why can't I...why me..why...why.") The excuses are my crutch. I lean on them to help me justify the mistakes and missteps that keep me from God. I have to put down the crutches. "Pick up my mat and walk" and tell others about my healing (it worked for the lame beggar).

Temptation based on "what I possess in my personality"? What is inside determines what comes from the outside--so, God changes my inside (when I allow it), the devil regroups, and I am to gird myself for attacks against a part of me that had been subjugated by the personality flaw that I'd been cradling prior to the conversion. Am I to move to a higher place more fitting to my intellect and to my talents where the temptation will be to take credit for myself? Or to face greed? Or contentment?

What about Chambers comment: "temptation is the suggested short-cut to the highest at which I aim"? The short-cut to happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, pleasure...you name it; that makes sense. Temptations are short-cuts, taking me to a place far short of the good goal. But these "diversions" from the long, hard road always force me to double back, to retrace my steps, to trod through the same mud that bogged me down.

So in the end, I am to conquer my current distractors only to find more appropriate ones. But with each conquest, praising God for what will surely be an amazing victory.

That sounds hopeful.