“Thy rod and [T]hy staff comfort us”  (Psalm 23)

“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, or faint when thou art rebuked by [H]im: For whom the Lord loveth [H]e chaseneth, and scourgeth every son whom [H]e receiveth.”  (Hebrews 12)

 

I  am going to provide you with a paradox that will be worthy of meditating upon. WE are told most clearly that God does not tempt us…it is clear from James.  HOWEVER, It is also written by James to count it all joy when we “fall into divers temptations: knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”  We also read in Mathhew 6, “..lead us not into temptation.”

I know there is the patented answer given by most…”Temptation is of self, the flesh and the devil, God does not tempt.”  Reader, please read on before throwing up your hand and thinking this writer an heretick. Here is our paradox: God does TEMPT us, with a righteous purpose in MInd and He uses the devil to do it. Let me put that into bullet point to make it clearer:
*God doth tempt His own with and for a righteous purpose.
*God uses the devil to do it.
*God uses the devil to “lead us into temptation” for which we should “count it all joy…”

Reader, I can prove this with one (1) main question and two (2) follow up to demonstrate the point: Who controls the devil? Was Job not sorely tempted?  Was CHRIST NOT SORELY TEMPTED?  We cover it up and try to defend God by calling it “testing.”  We have used this analogy many times before: There a may be certain pieces of evidence that are disqualified, by a judge, from being brought into a court of law and used against the defendent, by the prosecuting attorney. If the defense attorney errs and mentions that piece of disqualified evidence, the prosecuting attorney is free to use it.

This is how God uses sin.  God did not create sin, God did not cause sin, but He allowed (s)atan to err and bring it into the garden, thus opening the door for God’s use of sin to send the Word into the world that the Word might be made flesh and dwell amoung us. God uses sin to keep His own humble…what kind of pridefilled affront to God would you be without sin keeping you grounded.

Reader, I am not charging God with anything, God Forbid. I am exalting Him and praising Him for His Greart Wisdom and His Sovereign and Righteous and Holy use of the foolish devil, (s)atan. (s)atan thought he was getting away with something in Eden, when He was serving the Righteous and Holy Purposes and Pleasures Of God. Reader, the betrayal of (s)atan, the fall of the mant angels, the temptation of the our parents in Eden were all to bring God’s will to pass.  There can be no doubting this lest ye charge God with incompetence and ignorance.

Today, God uses sin in a myriad of ways for the purposes of His pleasures. God is Sovereign over sin. God is sin’s Lord and Master.  Did He not use a demon to vex Ahab?   Did God not put the idea of trying Job into the mind of (s)atan, “”Have you considered my servant, Job?”   God was leading (s)atan into temptation.  In the Old Testament God would use pagan kings to chasten the people of Israel and then punish the pagan nation for DOING HIS WILL!!!  Reader, do you not see the great WISDOM of God in these divine actions?  He did the same to (s)atan in the affairs of Job and He does the same when He allows (s)atan to tempt us.

You might say, “yeah, but…we sin on our own, without the provacations of (s)atan.”  We sure do, but is not God capable of restraining us? Do you not realize the restraining Hand of God upon you at all times?  He keep us from a multitude of sins everyday.  Have you not read of the king that would have “known” Sarah, lest God intervened and threatened this king?  Why did Adam not sin sooner?  God restrained the devil.  The devil and his lackeys were on earth before Adam and Eve…(s)atan is the God of this earth, is he not?  Did not our God exist before us?  (s)atan was upon the earth before humans…why did he not strike sooner?  The restrainer Hand of (s)atan’s LORD and Master.  (s)atan was leashed before his attack upon humanity, just as he will be leashed later as in Revelation.

What is the point of this article?  The point of this article is to show you how God will use (s)atan, His servant, to lead us into temptation, trials, testing as a means of chastening.  We are told in Scripture ad wrned by ministers of God that od will chasten those He loves,  How does God do this? Can you remember the last time you were chastened?  I bet you have to think about that. How does God chasten?
*God chastens as a loving and faithful Father and not as a judge.
*God chastens us as a Father Who awaits His beloved child that is late in coming home.
*God’s chastening, though loving, can be severe.
*God chastening is according to the child in need of the chasening. In other words, God knows what will work on each of us.  Christ chastend Peter with His three (3) questions of Peter’s love…this broke Peter.

Means of God’s chastening:
*Through the rebuke of a loved one (1).
*Through the rebuke of one (1) that is not thought of as a loved one (1) or one (1) that does not love you.
*Church discipline or the attention of a church leader…we see things; God gives a faith leader certain insights and God can direct a pastor’s eyes and spiritual eye and mind to something wrong in someone’s life.  We see the eyes the blushings, the movements that demonstrates one’s (1’s) discomort.
*God may take your sense of personal peace
*God may remove your sense of His Presence.
*God may take away spiritual in sight.
God may use the devil to lead you into a time of testing or temptation whereby you will be chastened or to bring something to your attention.
*A loss Peace in the home.
*A loss Success at work
*A loss of ease and liberty, and enJOYment at prayer
*Illness, pain
*Doubts.

God has full access to your spirit, mind, heart, etc. He will make full use of this access.  God has the reigns of your life in His hands, God knows exactly what buttons to push, God knows just what to take away and what to send in.  There is even a sin unto death, says John.  This is how we can discern whether a person is really saved or not, in some cases.

I know a man that thinks he is God’s gift to earth. This man is wicked and loves to inflict emotional pain upon others.  He attends church, until he is asked to leave, he hands out Bibles, this man has not a single friend on this earth and not a single family member that is in his life.  How do I know God chastens those He loves and will even bring a saint home that wanders to far?  This man is still alive and living a worldy and carnally prospereth life.

if you want to study more on God’s chastening love, one (1) needs only look at the lives of God’s elect in the Old Testament and New.  Study the life of David and Abraham, look at Samson.  In the New, look at Paul’s writings on church discipline.  One can do a case study on Jonah.

In closing, why should should we count it all joy when we are tested/tempted? Reader, it is “elementary”…before we were His, sins were fun and a normal part of life.  Now that we are His, what was a normal part of life is a sin and a temptation. Before we were His, we could swaer with the best of’em.

Now we see it as a grevous sin and an expression of a heart problem and we seek God to put a guard upon our lips.  Before we would allow sinful thoughts into our minds and would entertain them all the day long, now we seek to bring those sinful thoughts under the obedience of Christ, though these thoughts may present themselves to us, we entertain them not and if/when we do, we take hold of our selves, cast them out and confess them before the One Who knoweth our thoughts afar off.

Reader, I trust this will be a help, either today or in the coming days. I hope you may have gained more understanding in the Ways and Works of our All-Wise and All Wonderful and All Worthy God.  God’s grace and Godspeed be with you all that share a place in Christ, Who loved us and gave Himself for us.