Resisting temptation from the devil and trusting God for everything.
We will have both battles and blessings happen to us throughout our lives and most likely at the same time. It’s like our lives are riding on two different tracks at the same time regardless of what is happening. So often, God will bless you and then you will also have a battle that will come into play; example could be you got the job you wanted and prayed and now you also have to move for unknown reasons and may not have the money right there and now. It is in these moments of the battles, even though we may be being blessed, that the enemy will try to tempt us into things that we know we shouldn’t do. This is where reading The Word every day is very important, it helps us to fight these temptations as we rebuke every lie and every action of the devil with scripture and what is written in Jesus’ name, Amen! We cannot be changed or lose our faith in these hard times that we endure, we must stand strong no matter what and gather support from around us in order to keep fighting and stay rooted in Christ.
The devil might tempt you in numerous ways, however, they will always fall into 1 or more of the categories that he tempted Jesus with. The first one is instant gratification, he tempted Jesus in the forest by saying “If you are the Son of God, why don’t you turn these stones into bread” after Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus’ rebuke was “Man does not live on bread alone, but from every word that comes from the mouth of God”. The second is to test God with the devil bringing scripture out of context, he said “Why don’t you throw yourself of this high point for it is written ‘The Lord will command the angels concerning you to guard you'”. Rebuke with scripture as Jesus did by stating “You are not to test The Lord your God”, and lastly the devil tried to get him to worship him stating he will give him all command and authority over every government to be. Jesus replied “You are to worship The Lord your God only”. The enemy will try to tempt us in these various ways, making things more enticing than normal or do things we normally wouldn’t do. This is where knowing the Bible is important, so we can remember what scripture tells us and then use it against the enemy and rebuke his attacks to stay right with God, Amen!
Lastly, we see God’s love and covenant with us through the end of every storm that is thrown at us. Noah and his family went into their ark where they were safe and experienced God’s love even though they had the battle of the flood right outside. So often, we can forget to look up to God for joy, love, and peace in the middle of our storm and often times just accept that it is going to stay like that for the rest of our lives. God doesn’t want us to live depressed, sad, and in a storm for the rest of our lives; his desire and will is for us to live joyful and praising lives. God wants us to be joyful in this life and thanking him for it with praise, he wants you to know that he has everything you need already stored up in Heaven, you just have to look up and be patient for your time.
So, in life we will encounter times of both blessing and battles, they might happen at the same time or slightly apart from each other. Does this mean to live in fear when you are blessed and expect the worst to come as the battle? No, just ask God for the guidance on to handle what he has blessed you with. When a battle does arise, ask God for the strength and the ability to keep pushing and striving, looking up to him and knowing that he has everything under control. Anything that happens must pass his approval and being The Good Father he is, he would not let anything happen to you if he knew you couldn’t handle it. Trust him and know everything will be Okay, Amen!