Welcome!
Today: The “worst” is avoidable!
Passage: James 1
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1, NIV)
When a person reaches the limit of their patience, they may do something bad
When a person reaches the climax of their uncontrolled desire/temptation, they might commit an act of sin
Jesus focused on the “heart” (not the physical heart but the mind). He knew that a disease should be treated from within, not without. Many a time we, even churches try to treat people from the outside!
That is why the word of God is important. If it really gets into our heart, we will become more responsible to God and others. We will become responsible citizens
Those who closely follow God are a blessing to the land. Crimes will be less
In some of the most crime-prone areas, you will see some churches. They may be small, store-front churches. But they do a great deal of goodness!
If churches do the right thing, we will need only less Police in the streets
Now, let us ask ourselves a question:
As a believer in Christ, how do we handle anger and temptation? How worse can we become in our words and actions, if we face the worst?
What prompted me to think of this is certain acts of otherwise “good” people, that led to some of the worst crimes. They were either upset because of something and took a weapon and did what they never thought of doing before; Some committed suicide. Some yielded to temptations/ lust and committed sins
Joseph in the book of Genesis is a good role-model for us. He survived temptation. He even overcame revenge and anger by showing mercy to his brothers, instead of punishing them. He did his best as an administrator in a foreign land!
If we, who claim to be children of God behave exactly the same way as others when we are under pressure or temptations, no good!
The words we speak, the things we do, must have some “God-touch” in it if we belong to God. We can’t be so different from the one we call “Father”
Adam forgot who he was, when tempted; so did David. But David confessed and came back, and became the man after God’s heart! He became an asset to God!
May God bless us to do good, in a “crazy” world. There is so much good that you and I can do, if we focus right.
Have a great, blessed day!
BG
Prayer: Father God, thank you for being there for me. You are worth all my praise and thanks. Help me to be what you want me to be, in this world, touching many lives with your love, one life at a time. All this in Jesus’ precious name; Amen
Pressure and temptations can bring either the best or the worst out of us-depending on our relationship with God