Temptation (Part 1)
A game you never want to win
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Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires.
James 1:13-14 (NET)
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The blame game.
In today’s highly-charged, victim-mentality world, a lot of blame goes around. It’s his fault, her fault, their fault, the car, the weather, the money, the greedy so-and-so…
And when it comes to sin, sometimes we want to blame God too.
God is never at fault for my sin.
This verse makes that absolutely clear.
One of my spiritual mentors used to ask these questions whenever coming across hard-to-swallow verses:
“What is it saying? Is it true or false? So what will you do about it?”
Point of fact, a very great quiet time can be had by answering just those questions about any passage you’re reading. I know, I’ve done it many times.
Anyway…
The “is it true or false?” question sticks out to me here. Do I believe James when he says that no one is tempted by God?
After all, the story of Job has God allowing problems to occur in Job’s life — orchestrated by Satan, no less — which seems to fly in the face of this. Except, that’s not temptation by God. Those are circumstances — tough circumstances, but still simply circumstances.
Job passed the test without sinning with his mouth (I suspect some of his thoughts were more sinister, but at least he didn’t say them out loud.)
We can take ownership of our choices, even in hard circumstances.
Ownership requires rejection of the blame game.
After all, the only losers in that game are the ones playing it.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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