“And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”
Have you ever looked for a loophole to get out of doing things God’s way? James goes straight for the gut here as he builds on exactly what patient endurance needs to look like. (Spoiler alert: it’s going to be hard.) And when it gets hard, our brains want to go straight to the God-blame answers… “I was going to patiently endure but God brought this thing into my life and I just couldn’t pass that hard of a test…”
Nope. Wrong. Sorry. God’s not tempting you. And I have even worse news for you: it’s you. Your own desires drag you away from what God wants. When we feed those desires, they grow and develop into a full blown sin. That sin grows even bigger and before you know it, your dreams have fallen apart right before your eyes and everything is destroyed. Even worse, it’s Satan’s favorite plot line.
These verses may paint a bleak picture, but if you remember that the Spirit of the living God dwells inside you then suddenly you can see the hope. James is telling us that we are going to face temptation. That is why we have to endure (you can’t endure something easy). These temptations don’t come from God, they come from our own hearts. If you go all the way back to the very first devotionals here on Freedom For Today, you’ll find your answer in Galatians 5. The Spirit cultivates a garden in us and grows things like love, joy, peace and patience. He aligns our desires with his. And if God never tempts us, then any desire aligned with his desires will be 100% good for us. We don’t have to get beat up and dragged away by our own mess. Through Christ today you can have a victory in your life. So go out there and win it!