Pastor’s Thoughts – 02-15-2026

We live in a world of constant decision making. Even common advertising, as an example, is designed to entice us into spending money on something we don’t really need. Also, there is relentless activity at work to hinder and destroy our devotion to Christ. We know the world is a place dominated by evil and filled with every form of temptation seeking to separate us from God and take our attention and affections away from Him. We are constantly pressed from different directions and means to think and then act in a manner contrary to and displeasing to God.

We also know from such passages as the book of Job that God allows Satan to trouble His own children in order to test our faith, and to do so severely for our own ultimate good and maturing into His likeness. Temptations purposed from Satan on the one hand are to ruin our thinking and actions, but on the other hand God uses them for His own for our good. It is interesting that the Bible’s New Testament word for temptation in Greek is the word peirasmos. It can and is also translated “test.” The reason for this is that temptations are part of a Christians experience for testing our faith. That is why the word for test and for temptation are interchangeable according to their context. Satan intends to tempt Christians for destruction, but God allows or sends them for our good. The greatest example of how God turns evil into good is seen by what Peter stated in his sermon on the day of Pentecost; “Men of Israel, listen to these words; Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know – this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:22-24). These Jews at the time of Christ were tempted and fell by their evil into the murder of the Son of God, but God used it for the greatest blessing ever conceived.

The reality of God’s promise that, “He causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him” (Rom. 8:28) encompasses “all things” and this includes even our trials. Therefore, temptations serve a divine purpose for us in Christ. This is why James makes the startling statement, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2). As we study the Bible and learn from the examples of others who have lived by faith through many dangers, toils, and snares; we fall back on the reality that everything is moving according to the will of God and His plan for us. A key promise for us in dealing with the tests that come at us in various forms is, “No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). This passage tells us so much about God’s sovereignty in every situation of life. The unsaved have no understanding of this or have a claim to God’s promises under trials and testing. Christians are different than all other persons in how we can think of and approach the temptations and tests of living. God promises us that we will be tested and that our testing is purposeful. And our testing is exacting for us by never being beyond our overcoming ability. This ability is not derived from us, but through His power and sovereign control of every situation.

As I have grown older, I look back on the trials of life that not only have I personally encountered, but of those beloved around me. Many of the circumstances I could not understand at the time, and some I will not understand this side of glory. But to an event, I can see the hand of Almighty God bearing testimony when His sheep are involved. I love the words of David; “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread” (Ps. 37:23-25).

Whether or not we realize what God is doing in the surprising and often difficult circumstances of life, we know that God is with us and for us if we are trusting and loving Him. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:3-7).