Tempted

DEVOTION
JAMES
TEMPTED
James 1:13-15
13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
NIV
Well there it is right smack in my face. I have never ever thought God would tempt me to do evil or that God himself could ever be tempted to do evil. I can’t even understand why God would want me to know that, I would think it is a given. Yet I suppose some people might say God tests. But testing is for good, tempting is for evil. I have also said, and as sure as I am who I am, I do not need the devil to tempt me to do evil, I can handle that all by myself. That is exactly what God tells me here. When I am tempted to do something I such not, it is not the devil who it tempting me but my own evil desires which drag me away from being right. It is those things, the old nature within which tries to entice me. My selfish own being. Those self serving thoughts which tempt me to behave in a manner I should not. When I get upset or angry about how I am treated, it is my own self which has tempted me toward those emotions. If I were being Christ-like I would not give in to those feelings. Those temptations are from within my own being, and I cannot allow them to conceive and give birth to them, that would be sin. I cannot hide from the temptations or ignore them either. I cannot pretend they do not exist. That applies to those external temptations as well. The only reason they are temptations is because I desire them, my own self is the one desiring them. If I did not desire anything material then they would not be temptations. But knowing that it is me who causes them to be temptations, I also have the will to resist them, to not give in to not allow them to be conceived within me and thus be given birth to either. As long as they simply remain temptations it is not a problem. The problem is when I allow them birth and then allow the new birth of sin to continue to grow up and become a regular part of my life, I am done for. But that will not happen, I will continue to fail, to fall short of the mark, but I seek forgiveness and commit myself to further resistance against such behavior. I will not allow those things to live. Tempted yes, but not dragged away.