PODCAST
Standing In Sufferings
September 30th, 2012
RG AUDIO 093012
1 Peter 5:1-11
In contests of strength, the “last man standing . . .” is always victorious! On the banks of the Red Sea, Moses encouraged the Israelites to “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring . . .” (Exod. 14:13b) In the Hebrew Psalter we read “. . . he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” (Ps. 40:2b).
C. S. Lewis writes: “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is . . . You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later . . . We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means–the only complete realist.”*
Only in Christ are we able to “Resist [the devil], standing firm in the faith,” because Christ Jesus is Alpha-Omega, the “last man standing”(Col. 1:15b).
*C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (San Francisco: Harper Books, 2001)
September 30th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
Usually when one thinks of physical strength, exercise seems to be the catalyst; and when one thinks of temptation, forbidden fruit seems to be in the appetite.
Our appetite for this world changes as we “use” (exercise) a principle taught in the parables (Mark 4:24). The more we get of God’s Word, the more we don’t want to be a part of this world
Guilt may just be a conviction of the Spirit. (Refer to Hebrews 4:12)