Experience of Temptation

Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Not all of us understand the meaning and purpose of temptation. We think of it as an effort of Satan to destroy us. That is what Satan intends, but that is not God’s intention concerning temptation. Jesus was not only tempted, but He was led, driven, by The Holy Spirit to His temptation. He could not be our Saviour until He was tempted – that is, tried and proved. So we read here, “Blessed is the man that endures temptation.” The beatitude is not for him who has not been tempted, but for him who has met temptation and has been victorious. It certainly seems a strange thing to read that we should count it all joy when we fall into manifold temptations. We regret to see our friends come under sore temptation or to have to be tempted ourselves; but we learn here that we may even count it joy to have the experience. Temptation is therefore an opportunity. Blessings lie beyond it, which cannot reach in any other way but through the experience of temptation.