{"id":7003,"date":"2021-02-26T21:24:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T11:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7003"},"modified":"2021-02-26T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T11:29:07","slug":"trial-and-temptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/trial-and-temptation\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial and Temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Trial and Temptation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nMonica<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original\npost by Becoming Fully Alive blogsite, 17 Oct 2017<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Israelites said to them, \u201cIf only we had died by the LORD\u2019s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.\u201d<\/em> Exodus 16:3<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greek word \u2018peirasmos\u2019 means both a\ntrial and a temptation. The fathers of the church used them interchangeably and\nI am beginning to understand why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When everything turns out to be nothing like\nyou expected, it is much easier to despair, to fall into self- pity, and to\nignore God, in favour of getting lost in a never- ending introspection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it feels like I\u2019m stumbling around in\nthe dark wilderness and the thistles are scratching at my feet, when even\nwalking becomes difficult and the narrow road just seems too hard. Like Gomer,\nwho cried out for the old oil and drink she once had, and the Israelites who\ncried out for the meat of Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was tempted to take a sip of the soothing ointment of the world, that I\nknow to be poison.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.\u2019<\/em> Hosea 2:5<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didn\u2019t we say to you in Egypt, \u2018Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians\u2019? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!\u201d Exodus 14:12<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, I am realising why in the midst of Job and his friends talking about suffering and God, Job stands and promises to make a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a woman. For as many times I had read Job, I had never noticed how misplaced that seemed\u2026 until it was too familiar to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe I was never listening when they said\nin times of tribulation, you must be even more vigilant for temptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distracted by the walls of my city crumbling, my own house has been left\nunguarded.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Your own vineyard you have not kept\u2019.<\/em> Songs of Solomon 1:6<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh heart you have forgotten that the only real danger in this world is\nsin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor I have not stopped saying and I will not stop saying that there is only one thing truly distressing, and that is sin. Everything else is dust and smoke.\u201d<\/em> St John Chrysostom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it\u2019s one of the devil\u2019s favourite\ngames to keep us wrapped up in our own problems that we forget to ask\u2026 When I\nam squeezed, what is coming out? When I am squeezed\u2026 I am no longer\ndeceived. Sweet lemonade or bitter lemon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am realising that for years I was saying\nwords, words that were so easy to say. But now I am being called to live. To\nput into practice the endless preaching. In time, perhaps I will learn to say\nwith Moses that these words are \u2018not just idle for you, they are life\u2019 <\/strong>(Deuteronomy 32:47)and by them I will cross over into the\nJordan. I will cross over to new heights I know He wants to take me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, I am struggling through the\nlabour pains, I am so anxious to give birth to something beautiful, but I must\nlearn to wait patiently and know that in an INSTANT, God is able to do\nexceedingly abundantly more than I could pray and ask for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStop beseeching this or that person for help, and running after shadows \u2013 for this is what human assistance amounts to \u2013 instead ceaselessly beseech God whom you serve simply to give a nod and in a moment of time everything is brought into proper order\u201d St John Chrysostom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now if, while a man is walking in the path\nof righteousness, and is making his way toward God\u2026 he encounters in this path\nsome afflictions of this sort, he must not turn aside from his way. Rather, he\nshould accept whatever it is joyously, without scrutiny, and give thanks to\nGod, because God has sent him this gift. That is to say, because he has been\ndeemed worthy to fall into temptation for His sake, and to become a partaker of\nthe sufferings of the prophets and the apostles, and of the rest of the saints\nwho endured tribulations for the sake of God\u2019s path, whether from men, from\ndemons, or from the body. For without the bidding of God it is impossible that\ntribulations should be permitted to arise; but they occur so as to be for a man\nthe cause of righteousness -St Isaac the Syrian<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For it is not God\u2019s good pleasures that those whom He loves should live in ease while they are in the flesh -St Isaac the Syrian<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Original blog found at- https:\/\/becomingfullyalive.com\/trial-and-temptation\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trial and Temptation By Monica Original post by Becoming Fully Alive blogsite, 17 Oct 2017 The Israelites said to them, \u201cIf only we had died by the LORD\u2019s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to … Continue reading “Trial and Temptation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[481,480],"class_list":["post-7003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-temptation","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7003"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7010,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003\/revisions\/7010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}