Are You Tempted? (May 2026)
Temptation … is a common and recurring fact of life!
Jesus was tempted. At the beginning of His public ministry, we are told in Matthew 4 that the devil
tempted Jesus — at least three times. The intent of the temptations was to derail Jesus’ public ministry.
Jesus came to reveal God’s good and glorious nature to the whole world through the perfect life, clear
teaching, gracious healing, astounding miracles, sinless and vicarious death, and sufficient and
vindicating resurrection of the One Who was both fully God and human. By this means, Jesus would
redeem and reclaim a people as God’s own, beloved and adopted as His sons and daughters. The
temptations, on the other hand, sought to get Jesus to serve self, to test God, and to worship the devil.
The devil’s temptations are sometimes disguised as “friendly chats”. “Did God really say …” is how the
first temptation began in Genesis 3:1, when the serpent twisted God’s commission to Adam and Eve that
they were free to eat from any tree in the garden, but “not from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil”. (Genesis 2:16-17)
God’s gracious provision was freedom, but freedom with self-restraint.
The
temptation was to selfish indulgence.
Temptation involves suffering. The suffering for the descendants of Adam and Eve is often initially in the
struggle between our old, fallen, selfish nature, which wants to satisfy the cravings of the flesh, and our
new, Spirit-filled
and Spirit-directed
nature, which is eager to offer God praise, flowing from our
gratitude for God’s great love for us and His many mercies, which are new every morning.
Hebrews 2:18 “
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are
being tempted.” (NIV)
Joseph Scriven’s famous hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus” has some memorable lines: Have we
trials and temptations? … Take it to the Lord in prayer.
We do well to remember that Jesus in His humanity also took His temptations to God in prayer. In the
Garden of Gethsemane, when struggling with submitting to His pending arrest and crucifixion, not only
did Jesus pray, but He asked the disciples to sit and pray with Him. (See Mark 14: 32-40.)
Although they
failed, and fell asleep — and later deserted Jesus at the cross — we do well to mark and learn from the
truth that Jesus persevered in “taking it to the Lord in prayer” — and overcame the temptation.
Calling others to stand with us in prayer when we are tempted is a good, God-appointed
strategy — and
one of the ways in which we can overcome temptation.
We cannot avoid temptation — but we can, with God’s promised help, escape the devil’s clutches
successfully. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will
not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way
out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10: 13, NIV)
Seeking God’s help in overcoming temptation, one day, one step, and one prayer at a time,
Your pastor,
James T. Hurd
