“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” (James 1:2 KJV)
“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!” (James 1:2 Phillips)
“Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy.” (James 1:2 TLB)
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” (James 1:2 MSG)
Grace has to work a great many miracles in us to heartily accept and practice these words. But there is a place of such victory and union with Christ, that the soul can really find a source of joy from every trial and temptation through which it has gone. It is almost impossible for us to see any benefit of being tempted while we are passing through them. Nevertheless, afterward, if we hold on to the unchanging hand of Christ, we can and will have victory.
What are the benefits of being tried through temptations?
First, Resisting any given evil to which the soul is tempted will induce an increased hatred for that sin. The holiest saints in all ages have been those who are the most sorely tempted. Why? Because the very habit of fighting any particular sin will form a habit of loathing for that particular sin. The persistent fight against some old ruling passion or sin arouses in the soul a universal revenge.
It is God's design that we shall have the most perfect victory at the very points where we have been the weakest. This requires, though, a limitless crucifixion of self and a complete possession of the Holy Ghost. But it can be done, and has been done, in thousands upon thousands of cases. Such victory has been won through awful temptations to sin which developed into a boundless, unrelenting hatred of sin. That which the enemy of our soul used to try to destroy us can be turned around and be used as a powerful weapon against him.
Second, Temptation drives us to a deep, serious study of ourselves. When temptations come, they should cause us to analyze our affections, our wills, and our motives. It should make us search the quality of our actions, thoughts and words. It should make us dig into solitude to the very secret foundations of our character. Temptation compels us to study the awful nature of sin. It makes us trace the danger of wrong affections, of evil thoughts, of improper words. It opens our eyes to see the hellfire that sleeps in so-called little sins. To be thoroughly tempted is the pathway to a thorough knowledge of ourselves and of the malignity of sin.
Third, Temptation makes us see our true nothingness and weakness. We are nothing within our own selves. Without God's help, we could not overcome temptation. We are weak and frail in ourselves, but God is strong and mighty, more than able to see us through any of the fiery darts of satan. When we try to fight against temptation on our own, we are fighting in the flesh. But when we fight against temptation through the power of the Spirit, we will see a mighty victory.
Fourth, Temptation teaches us our true humiliation and self-abasement. You think you're something? You think that you can make it on your own? Are you puffed up with pride and think that nothing can take you down? Well, if you do, my friend, you're on your way to a serious fall. Nothing can make us any humbler than have temptations come our way and find out that we can't handle them on our own. True humility is found in the realization that we, within ourselves, are no match for the enemy.
Fifth, Temptation leads us to patient endurance. When we were first tempted, we chafe and fret. When it comes back, still stronger, we whimper and whine. At last we quiver long-suffering only in the hand of God and patiently look to Jesus as an afflicted child looks to his mother's face while its wound is being dressed. When we patiently wait on the Lord, He will always come through for us with a mighty victory in our life over the forces of darkness.
Sixth, Temptation leads us into real, heartfelt sympathy and compassion for others. It takes deep trials to soften and widen our sympathies. If a cold, complacent saint is put through an unexplainable conflict of soul that makes him roll on the floor in agony for hours at a time, while his body is wet with perspiration, when he comes out of that bath, if he comes out on the Christ side, there will be a tenderness in his judgment, and a broadness in his compassion, which no church service alone could ever impart.
A famous minister of the Gospel by the name of George Watson said this about temptation, “Blessed are they that endure temptation till not only sinful self is purged out, but till the last form of righteous self is gone and the soul is taken out of its furnaces into a supernatural embrace of the Holy Spirit.” That is true freedom my friend.
The Bible has many promises to the tempted. Throughout Scripture it gives to us inspiration to let us know that when we are tempted by the forces of darkness that we will overcome those forces and all the temptations.
(1) Power to tread on evil forces. “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)
(2) Safety through Christ’s intercession. “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32)
(3) Provision of a way of escape. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
(4) Help in the trying hour. “For because He himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18 ESV)
(5) Final victory is ours. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)