Again with temptation? Chambers unpacks a bit more of what he means by differing temptations on differing planes of existence. It's after I confess Jesus as my Master and have received the belief in my heart that He is raised from the dead that I begin tempting of a different sort. As Chambers puts it, it is temptation to do the good thing my Master does not tell me to do instead of the perfect thing He does. It is a temptation over who is in control or Master of my life. I believe that pretty well sums up my temptations. But Chambers goes on to define temptation.
"Temptation means the test by an alien power of the possessions held by a personality." I don't want to spend a lot of time on that definition, partly because I'm not sure I get it. The idea that I am tempted at the point of my usefulness to my Master is sufficient. Yesterday, on the way to the breakfast I spoke at, I heard this song on the radio I really like. It talked about the value my Master places on me, and was very encouraging. The temptation was to switch my talk from what I learned about my Master to how valuable I am to Him. It would then have become about me, and that was dangerous. I didn't give in though.
I spoke yesterday, much as I put in my blog, about learning the faithfulness of my Master and how He showed me that. It was brief, and for those of you who have heard me speak before, you know that is a miracle in and of itself. The time was on point, touched the three ways I learned that my Master is faithful, and, as usual, struggled to wind it up. I thought of a verse I almost forgot to mention, and sort of threw in at the end, Romans 10:9, where salvation is made up of a confession that Jesus is Lord, and the belief that He is raised from the dead. The "Master" part is what I confessed, and am still learning.
The mastery of Jesus in my life continues to be the point where I am tempted. It is where my addiction lived and thrived. Submission and devotion to my Master is where my weakness has been all along. It has been where my people-pleasing and attempt to work to become acceptable have taken me away from the things my Master had for me. I know that in some sense it was my own twisted thinking about my Master that enabled the temptations, but I believe it was also my enemy. My accuser, my enemy knows where my weaknesses lie, and will never rest his attacks on them.
It probably confounds and confuses my enemy that anyone would resist the temptation he fell to. Why wouldn't anyone want to be God, take His power, and exercise His position? Doesn't everyone want to be their own master? Doesn't everyone believe they could rule their own world better than the One who actually does? Can't everyone do a better job, have fewer casualties, have more happiness, and make more beauty and less ugliness? Why would anyone resist such a temptation to take the world into their own hands? Everyone should want to replace God with something. I did for a while.
So, I have a nature that works against me, and I have an enemy who works against me. It would seem hopeless if it wasn't for the deposit given to me against a day I stand before my Master face to face. Jesus has sent His Spirit to live within me, and so the odds are actually tipped the other way. Hopelessness becomes confidence when my Master's Spirit is compared to my enemy and nature. He works to destroy my nature, to conform me more and more into the image I was intended to have, and intercedes for me, interpreting my needs before my Master. He forms the connection I need between my human frailty and the Master of the Universe.
So I win; but only as a member of the family of my Master. I conquer as a soldier in His army. I succeed, in as much as I submit to my Master in all I do. But it is a strange reality that I win, conquer, and succeed in this way. It is as if I am a spectator (I used that idea yesterday in the breakfast talk) rather than a participant. I am more the vehicle than the soldier or even the weapon. I imagine myself as more, I want to be more. I want to be the one doing the work, being the hero, getting the attention, but I'm not. Instead the One forming stars from dust gets the glory and attention. I'm good with that.
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