Psalm 92:12-13
The righteous
shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow
like a cedar in Lebanon
Those who are
planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish
in the courts of our God.
Psalm 68:5-6
A father of the
fatherless, a defender of widows,
Is God in His
holy habitation.
God sets the
solitary in families;
He brings out
those who are bound into prosperity;
But the
rebellious dwell in a dry land.
I’m gonna keep
this short and sweet.
Days #26 &
#27 in The Purpose Driven Life are all about temptation.
How to grow
through it, and how to overcome it.
Here’s how it
works.
The bible says:
casting all
your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that
the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
1 Peter 5:7-9
#1: whenever
you’re tempted, you need to shift your focus.
God cares about
you… He LOVES you! (I’ll say it again) HE LOVES YOU!
Because He
loves you, you can trust Him.
Whatever is
wearing you down, whatever is tempting you, or even whatever is making you
worry… just stop for a second and shift your focus back to Him.
You will find
it’s impossible to be so concerned about things when you are surrounded by His
presence.
#2: As much as
God loves you… so the devil matches Him for hatred.
Its true, he
hates you. But you don’t have to worry about it.
God says to “be
vigilant”!
That doesn’t
mean you go looking for the next “warfare” the enemy is waiting to spring on
you.
Don’t give him
so much credit!
He hates you…
but that’s because you are made in God’s image AND Satan knows that – thru the
blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit inside of you – you have the POWER to
defeat him!
#3: “Resist him
steadfast in the faith”
It’s extremely
hard to resist someone who you constantly give in to.
So in order to
resist Satan, you must make sure you’re covered.
You must be
covered in the blood of Jesus… filled with His Holy Spirit… and planted in a
place that He chooses.
This last point
brings me back to the 2 verses I started out with. (if you skipped over these
entirely, please go back and read them. Even if you read them, please go back
and review. Highly important. J )
Being planted
in your local church is the key.
It’s much
easier to resist temptation when you have good God-appointed leaders over you
to help steer you straight when the enemy swoops in like a roaring lion… it is
this God-given authority that may save your life someday if you just stay
planted in God’s house.
You don’t choose
your church… God chooses your church.
He placed you
there for a reason… He set you in that church family because there was a YOU-shaped
hole waiting to be filled. Anytime you feel like you should maybe leave, or
even get frustrated with your family (and we all know families quarrel from
time to time) and want to run away – just remember. There’s an enemy out there
who hates you. And he would give anything to see you uprooted and die in some
hot, dry place because you got out from under your authority.
Bloom where He
planted you.
Stay planted…
and you WILL flourish in the house of God!
Happy Sunday! J
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