TEMPTATION (1)

'Jesus was...tempted by the devil.' Matthew 4:1 NIV

The Bible says, 'Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.' Notice who led Jesus there: God! You're in training for your destiny, and a good trainer has one thing in mind-turning flab into muscle. So he takes you into the gym and increases the weights until you break a sweat and start thinking, 'I don't know how much more of this I can take'. But God does. It's only when you look back that you realise you're handling situations today you couldn't have handled a year ago. Sometimes old temptations will return with a vengeance. They'll hound you until you think you need some new, novel, quick-fix strategy. Like the Israelites at the Red Sea, just when they thought they were finally free from a life of slavery, here comes Pharaoh. At that point they cried out to God in fear, saying, 'It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians...' (Exodus 14:12 NIV). 'Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water"' (vv. 15-16). God used Moses' rod-again! Victory over the Egyptians didn't come from discovering something new; it came from using what God had already given them. You have the power inside you today to overcome the temptation you're facing right now. You just need to tap into it. Paul said, 'Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us' (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV).