As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
For all of us in the Lord's Prayer, we are fixed upon temptation in moving past it quickly in the prayer, as we know our guilt and weaknesses, and are drawn to temptation. Martin Luther in his Inspired Catechism though does not mention the dual fold aspect of temptation, because in a word search you will find the Hebrew, nasah: which is what people do to God in testing Him and trying Him, and God is not pleased when this takes place in the least.
nasah: to test, try
Our foreparents coming out of Egypt endlessly tested and tempted God, to the extent that God swore most of the original Israelites would never see the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb crossed the Jordan and Moses saw that land only from a mountain top before he died.
The big break came place at Meribah, where Moses incurred the wrath of God along with the children of Israel, as Moses struck the rock twice in which water flowed from. People get into all kinds of trouble with God when they doubt His power.
Exodus 17:7
And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
This temptation of God prevailed all through the Bible in what took place at the rock of the living waters. It was a line in the Spiritual sand.
Deuteronomy 6:16
Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
The Israelites were given freedom from Egyptian slavery, and once they received it, they wanted to return to the safety of slavery, exactly as the peoples of the west lust for the welfare state to take care of them.
God gave them manna in bread, and that was not enough, so they wanted meat.
Psalm 78:18
And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
Doubting God, is limiting God, it is telling God that He is not all powerful, and that limits God's workings to help people in their doubt. Jesus had the same problem in His home province as He could not perform miracles there as the people doubted and would not receive the miracles.
Psalm 78:41
Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
There is a difference though in being tempted of satan or tried by God. God may allow you to be tempted by satan to prove you, but God never tempts you. You and I get into trouble in thinking we can handle sin or allowing ourselves to put what we want ahead of God.
James 1
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
The minute each of us thinks we are so strong, so established in Faith, so forgetting it is all about God carrying us, we jump out of the boat like Peter thinking we can walk on water and we sink like a rock, because satan is waiting for us to destroy us with our own stupidity and arrogance.
I Peter 5
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Each of us has a responsibility to not allow us to lead ourselves into temptation. The first is to stop associating with sinners who are going to goad us into breaking God's Law.
Proverbs 1:10
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
The second is to resist the devil, and it will flee from us.
James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
As Martin Luther explains, God tempts no one, but each of us prays in the Lord's Prayer to be kept from the process which takes us from the safety of God. I got into a world of problems because I prayed for something I should not have, which was sinful. That was a lesson which almost destroyed me, but in my convincing myself that the sinful solution would end my misery, I prayed and God in return gave me my sin and I learned a harsh lesson, in I never again thought I knew more than God.
The Sixth Petition
And lead us not into temptation.
What does this mean? God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.
In every temptation, God does provide you with an escape. I had a very hard time in my life with temptation, because I was vulnerable at times.It was a horrid seesaw battle which I constantly lost, because I was choosing the answers in the world, instead of letting the olde Eve die and becoming completely Spiritual.
Christ knows, and I know that temptation is impossible as a burden, that is why it is temptation. It required a very long time, and I almost died several times, but I kept at it, and now temptation is not something which finds a place in me, because I will not allow it a place to be entertained.
It is a point that one does not give up. One keeps on, has Jesus carry them, has Jesus rescue them, and even it takes years, you still keep resisting and be carried past the point of temptation.
I Corinthians 10:13Jesus knows everything about being tempted, as He was here, but He did not sin or act out on the temptations. His personal "weakness" if the Son of God could have one, appears to be in the satan attacks which focused on His identity. In every temptation, it was satan beguiling Christ to prove that He was the I AM.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Jesus refuted it, but it did appear to be a genius strategy, and by all of us failing at temptation, we certainly know where satan harpoons us with our weaknesses and starts a series of events to destroy us, so that we no longer recognize who we are.
Hebrews 4:15
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
I learned the harshest of lessons in nurturing temptation and asking for sin. satan almost murdered me and satan almost got the Spirit in me. It was not just one situation, but another person appeared afterwards who did the same thing, but this one had a powerful demon in their family and I cast it out, and that thing then showed up in my sleep in pure pleasure, but the Holy Ghost held me and I rejected that temptation. It was a very long process of years to spring in my sleep thee ultimate trap to possess and destroy me.
It is why I personally warn you from experience do not keep temptation around, and pray God for proper Christian activities to provide the pleasure to replace the sinful pleasure which is tempting you. It is a point that it is not always sensual, but things necessary as water as the Israelites were complaining about. See maybe sometimes when God is taking care of you all of the time, you could be asking Him if maybe you should carrying a canteen or digging a well. All of us go charging off into the desert of temptation, when God is taking care of us, and then we blame God, Who is innocent as always, and has been watching us not appreciate all He has done for us.
Lead us not into temptation. Having God, having been provided for, we then forget God paid our debts in sin and like thinking we are gods, and then comes our thinking that we can handle temptation. King David could not with Bathsheba in that disaster as an example. No one can and it is why more effort needs to be engaged in, in fervently praying to not be led into temptation, or in tempting God.
Nuff Said
agtG
