Jesus had a desire to...SIN?!!?!?!!!!?!? Am I reading into this right???? I don't even know honestly, but that's what I'm getting here, so correct me if I'm wrong.
So, I guess we can conclude that being tempted itself is not a sin. After all, we live in a world full of temptation, and there's no way to avoid it. I believe that the world we live in today tempts us to act on things that distract us. Don't believe me? Well, let's see what we've got here:
- Social Media
- Snapchat
- Tumblr
- Texting
- You get the idea.
- Television
- Magazines
- Buzzfeed quizzes
- Shopping
- Ads
- Commercials
- Music (yes, I said it, even though it was hard too...)
- Food
- Movies
- Friends
- Politics
- Boyfriends
- Girlfriends
- Family
- Sports
- Clothing
- Art
- Etc.
- Etc.
- Fill in the blank. What distracts you?
Now are all of these things I just listed necessarily "bad?" No. These things are only Satan's devices, or tools, that he is able to use to distract us or tempt us. And so while we watch commercials or movies or read magazines, we need to do so with the utmost of CAUTION. Even the littlest thought that runs through our heads while scrolling on Facebook or reading a magazine can be extremely harmful to us, because one thought becomes another, and then another, and they just keep building up.
So how is distraction related to temptation? Well, Satan's main goal is to use whatever he can to distract us from God. In other words, his goal is to make us believe that we need to rely on other things to satisfy us besides Jesus.
Again, we see in Matthew 4 Jesus was hungry from fasting for 40 days and Satan told him that he could just turn a bunch of stones into bread, but he refused and said that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Well what the heck does this Jesus language mean.
When Jesus said that "man shall not live by bread alone," he's saying that we shouldn't rely on or live off of the things that we think we need. Whether it be bread, Twitter, or even music (yes, I said it again...). If we live off of these things, Satan is succeeding in distracting us from the one true thing we need, which is Jesus.
He then says that we should live "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Woah. Coolio. This means that we should live off of Jesus; He should be our one and only source of fuel. He's the only one who can fully satisfy and bring us the most joy unlike anything else this world offers.
So is it wrong to scroll through Facebook or read into politics or hang out with your boyfriend or girlfriend? NO! Not at all. To sum it all up, Jesus just warns us that Satan uses these things to tempt us into thinking harmful thoughts or doing bad things. He also says that we need to first find our full satisfaction in Jesus before turning to these other things to fuel us or bring us happiness.
DARE: Think about what distracts you from God the most. The first thing that pops into your head...STOP. Okay, now take that thing, whatever it may be, and give it up for a day. Just one day (or more, depending on how enthusiastic you are).
God uses the time we give to Him. When we don't have all those distractions surrounding us, we are finally able to hear God speaking to us more clearly. You're probably thinking, "well I'd like to hear God actually shout something in my ear, that'd be pretty cool." Hate to bust your bubble but that's not really the way it works. God speaks to us when we pray and when we study His Word. So use your extra time away from your distraction to do so, and you might find out something super cool that God has been trying to tell ya.
Alright, well creds to Jack Rymer for your latest blog post and for inspiring me to write this one. Peace 'n blessin's to ya.
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