| Author | Message | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 883 Registered: 10-2008 |
Question: What is the difference between temptation vs. testing? Since God is Sovereign, how do you see the difference? This question was posed to me recently and I have been mulling the thought over in my mind. Interested in your thoughts. P.S. As someone coming out of SDAism Sovereignty is a concept that is new and amazing. Feel free to address what Sovereignty means as well. | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 1906 Registered: 5-2007  |
It all depends on the source. This morning I had a 'Friend request' on Facebook. Since I get a lot of these requests from FAF friends who haven't shared their real names, I temporarily oked it. Then I discovered it would link me to sex sites. That person was clearly tempting me to sin. God can and does use such situations for 'testing' but he is not the source of the temptation. On simply click and that person was gone from my friend list. God knows fully well that this is an area of serious temptation and has promised that with the temptation, he provides a way of escape. Fearless Phil | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 7743 Registered: 3-2004  |
Jrt, I have an eating disorder so I will use that. When I want to eat something that will trigger my disorder, that is temptation for me. When I do not eat it, it is because I have trusted God to not eat it. I am partially retired. Right now I am not working as there is not enough work for me at the hospital out patient dept. I have my retirement and my social security. That is not enough to pay all my bills. I need the other work. God is letting me be tested right now. I have the faith and trust that He will provide. So far He has. That is how I see the difference in temptation vs testing. I feel like there is something I should be doing and have asked God many times what I can/should do. He has not answered me so I wait patiently, which is hard as I am not a patient person. I like immediate gratification. Diana L | ||
| 8thday Registered user Username: 8thday Post Number: 1343 Registered: 11-2007  |
In a Grace Mail last week, Pastor Mark Martin talked about Abraham's test with his son. He said God wasn't testing his faith to see if he had enough, giving him a chance to fall. But because God already knew he did, He wanted to demonstrate that to the world. I never thought of it that way.. so maybe. Then.. applying that back to Adam gets a little complicated. =) Jesus's temptation, Job's test.. all of those under God's jurisdiction but implemented by the enemy. No way I can explain how I see what Sovereignty of God is. It covers more dimensions of time and space than I have the ability to explain. =) But yes.. it's pretty awesome! Sondra | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 10672 Registered: 12-2003  |
Sometimes I suspect our "tests" become opportunities for the enemy to "tempt". God cannot tempt us, but we have sinful flesh even though our spirits are alive because of righteousness (Romans 8:10-11). In our times of testing, we can't always see what's going on in the spirit realm. I'm totally certain that Abraham was tempted during God's test of him...God was doing something HUGE that Abraham couldn't see at all. God was having Abraham act out a shadow of God's gift of Jesus and Jesus' sacrifice—and God's provision for us limited mortals. Abraham had no way to see all that. He wasn't supposed to! He just had to trust God, Whom He knew. He could have chosen not to trust—and I'm sure He was tempted to bargain or somehow preserve Isaac. But Abraham couldn't see The Test—he just knew God, whom he had trusted before, was asking him yet again to do something he didn't understand...and he obeyed. At the "rubber meets the road" level, our response as believers who have the Spirit of God in us is to obey when we're confronted with life's challenges. I don't think we often know when we're being tested. I suspect that temptation can come at any time, because Romans 7 and 8 states that we have sinful flesh still. We have an ongoing obligation, according to Romans 8:10-14, to live by the Spirit and not the flesh. All we can usually see is that we're in an impossible "place", and God asks us to trust Him and not to automatically attempt to solve it with our normal "wisdom". We have to surrender the circumstances to Him, and He'll provide, like He sent that ram on Mt Moriah, at exactly the right time. We simply have to obey when His orders are clear. I don't know the answers to all this...I just suspect that temptation can come at any time, even in the middle of a test from God. Ultimately, God asks us to trust Him, to surrender our grip on "being right" and "having our rights" to Him and rest in His provision. He asks us to admit when we're blinded, and to submit our impulses to Him. His tests are times when He asks us to trust Him without seeing the solution or resolution. We have to know our response must be to Him--not primarily to what surrounds us. And temptations can come in the midst at any time. Jesus' wilderness temptations are an example. The Bible clearly says the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness "to be tempted by the devil" (Matt 4:1). Get that? The Holy Spirit led him there to be tempted by the devil. This event could well be seen as a "test"—a time when Jesus would demonstrate His trust in His Father...but it was God's will that Satan would tempt Him. He demonstrated that He was the Perfect Israel—trusting God after fasting in the desert, and He demonstrated that He qualified as the Messiah, defeating Satan with God's word and with authority. He thwarted every attempt of Satan to seduce Him away from the arduous task of a "long obedience", refusing to gain quick glory for the price of compromise with temptation. God's sovereignty is at work in our lives, and when we are born again, God's sovereignty is interacting intimately with our mortal flesh. It's impossible to explain—as Sondra said!—but it's amazing and paradigm-altering! Colleen | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 888 Registered: 10-2008 |
I just wanted to say thank you to those who posted. I guess I was mulling over the idea that God is Sovereign and everything that comes to me - is filtered through Him. Does that make sense? So that would include temptation and testing. Really great insights everyone - thanks! Keri |
