The devil's temptations vs. God's tests

edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
The devil tempts us to try and make us fall into sin while God puts hard tasks in our way to strengthen us. But clearly these two must have some type of relationship, right? It would be to our benefit if God lets the devil tempt us, because we will be strenthening ourselves and realizing how the devil works. When we fall into sin, we are strengthened if we repent and confess. When we ovveride the tasks that God has set for us, we also strengthen ourselves. Any opinions?

Comments

  • Oops, override. Lol.
  • It's true that everytime you confess and repent you become stronger because I noticed that I'm doing less sins everytime I confess and repent. It's because when you fall, it hurts you soooooo much and you never want to do it again so it's harder for you to do it again. And in order for you to attain that strength you have to turn to the Lord for strength and that's what he wants us to do. He wants us to put all our hope in him but if the world didn't have evil and satan tempting us why would we have any hope in God?? People would just say that there's nothing wrong with the world so what's the point? so when we fall for satan, we cling on to god more and more and more until we get closer to him and we don't become lost in the world. If satan didn't make it so hard then we really wouldn't need much strength and people would forget the concept of god. Don't think I made much sense :-\ God bless.
  • u mad sense to me anyway and i completely agree with u
  • Yeah, me too.

    LordHaveMercy
  • "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand" (Psalm 37:24)

    "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall I will arise; when I sit in darkness, The Lord will be a light to me" (Micah 7:8)

    God tests us and allows us to be tempted by the devil so that when we are tempted we should seek Him and cry out to Him from our hearts for His helping hand, He wants us to depend on Him and not to depend on ourselves. We can defeat the devil and overcome temptations if we put all our trust in God "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). God will strengthen us if we ask for His help humbly, knowing that we can do nothing WITHOUT Him, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13)
  • So then, we can say that there are three groups of people:

    a) Those who fall into sin yet accept God and want to be cleansed from this blemish.
    b) Those who fall into sin and stay into sin, rejecting God.
    c) Those who fall into sin but are indifferent of the fact and Truth that God does exist.

    For c, I believe that being born a Christian prevents this from happening. But for all those born into different religions, it must be very hard to convert to Christianity when they believe it is the true religion, especially when the family of this person is strong in their faith and belief of the religion. So, if this person converted to Christianity, would God give the person a greater reward in heaven since this person had to work harder to become closer to God?


    Please correct me if anything I said was wrong.

    LordHaveMercy
  • on a similar note, how do we know the difference between a miracle from God and the devil trying to fool us?
  • When God does a miracle, he does it for our benefit. If a miracle did happen, it would be to bring people towards God. So, think to yourself and ask, "If this miracle really is from God, what is the purpose of it? What was God trying to show us?" If you cannot come up with an answer relevant to enlightening our minds and increasing our faith in God, or something along those borderlines, then it most likely is a rumor or the devil's work.

    Please correct me if I'm wrong.

    God Bless You,
    LordHaveMercy
  • but the anti-christ can do things that can bring us together too....or make us think so at least
    i know the priest at my church overly-stresses not to fall for these so called "miracles"
  • Yeah, I agree with you. But I was just wondering, what kinds of things can the anti-Christ do to bring us together, or make us think that?
  • Guys God doesnt tempt, and also God doesnt test, however he allows the devil to do this thing, and even though these things are bad God uses them to His advantage,
    The devil has free will just like all of us so he tempts us to make us fall, God however would rather good come to everybody since He loves us so much, however since satan has free will to do evil, God uses this evil for good, whether it be to bring us closer to Him or what

    James chapter 1:13,14 says:
    "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; 14 but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."




  • Our daily prayers as our Lord told us not to lead us into
    temptations but deliver us from the devil.
    Once one asks God in any temptation, He will help
    immediately. But it happens in most cases, he loves
    that. and much attracted to it. We must pay attention for
    that, and when we fall we have to repent.

  • Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that we were tempted by God, because like you said, God doesn't tempt us but lets the devil tempt us for our benefit. I meant, the devil can trick us to think that something we're doing is right, when it's really not.
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