peace . love . joy

Why, if God is so all-knowing, would He let temptations dance scintillatingly up to us and risk our falling away?

Why, if God is so all-loving, would He let us even be tempted?

Why, if God is so all-powerful, would He not change events in our favour?

He made us, fashioned us out of the dust from the ground, breathed life into us, carved us out in His likeness. He saw man fall. He sees the past, the present and the future; He is time. Watching us, hurting because of us, crying over us, even sending His Son down to die for us... Surely Jesus, of the Godhead three, would know how difficult it is to tear our captivated attention from temptation.

Why, then, would He still let it at us?

There is one particular sin with which I have struggled, and still struggle with. It's like one of them battles from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Pick one. The Battle for Minas Tirith, the Battle in Pelennor Fields, the Battle at Helm's Deep, the Battle of Isengard, fleeing the Mines of Moria... It's like that for me, except it's repeated over and over and over, sometimes daily, sometimes more than once a day, sometimes after a substantial period of peace.

After two years worth of battle with that sin, I thought victory over it was won. I thought I have been freed from its vice-like clutches, its stench of moral decay, the depressing cumulonimbus clouds have lifted. I was right.

But I was wrong. I was wrong to let my defenses down, I was wrong to think it slain forever, to think it lacking the ability to ressurrect, to think it would stay dead.

Confronting my sinful nature is an everyday affair, an everyday necessity if I choose to raise God's banner over His temple, me. It sucks to realise that I am sinful. It sucks even more to realise that that is what I am, what I was born into, what I would grow up into.

But that's the thing, you see?
With a promise of Life eternal, the demise of Death, cheating Hades of my soul,
with a promise of faithfulness, forgiveness, grace, mercy and love like I have never known and will ever know,
I get to choose.

When temptation presents her scantily clad self, undulating her hips this way and that, licking her lips and seductively touching her body,
I get to choose.
When failure rears its head and brandishes its powerful hooves,
I get to choose.
When depression and guilt stare with empty eyes, anxiously snatching with their bony and emaciated hands,
I get to choose.

I get to choose just as Jesus got to choose.
He chose humility, knowledge & wisdom, forgiveness, mercy & grace, gentleness, patience, kindness, and love. He chose faithfulness to the Father above. He chose immortality by the Almighty's side.

The Teacher showed us that we get to choose.
In the face of pride, we get to choose humility (Matthew 20:28; Philippians 2:1-11)
In the face of ignorance & folly, we get to choose knowledge & wisdom (Matthew 7:24-29)
In the face of bitterness, we get to choose forgiveness (Luke 23:33-43)
In the face of revenge, we get to choose mercy & grace (John 1:14)
In the face of cruelty, we get to choose gentleness (John 8:3-11)
In the face of impatience, we get to choose patience (Matthew 16:8-11)
In the face of hate, we get to choose kindness (Luke 6:33-36)
In the face of scorn, contempt & animosity, we get to choose love (Romans 5:8)

That's why God allows temptations and trials to come our way.
They are our second, third, fourth, tenth, thirty-seventh, ninety-fifth, two hundred and twelfth chance to choose to do right by Him.
They are our faith practiced, because each time we choose goodness over evil, we remember our race, we utter His Words, we build ourselves up in Him.
They are our faith alive.
They are our worship to our Creator King, because each time we choose to exemplify Him over our sinful natures, we show Him we love Him.

Sin is not an ailment, a cannot-be-helped plague that has befallen poor mankind that we are to be pitied and accomodated. It is a baggage that we carry, our own tree that we crucify ourselves with. It can be cast down and renounced.

"Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (who have borne testimony to the Truth), let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us"

~ Hebrews 12:1

That's wWhy, if God is so all-knowing, would He lets temptations dance scintillatingly up to us and risk our falling away?.
That's wWhy, if God is so all-loving, would He lets us even be tempted?.
That's wWhy, if God is so all-powerful, would He does not change events in our favour?.

He loves us too much to watch us wallow ignorantly & foolishly in sin.

Keep struggling, dear one! Wage your Battles for Middle Earth tirelessly and with great conviction. You will claim victory for your King is victory incarnate.

Release your vices, your bitterness, your guilt, your failures, and lay them at the feet of the Living Crucifed Savior.
Seek His wisdom and Truth.
Let Him be your navigator, your little red bell, your disciplinarian, your comforter, your strength.