0917 試探有何益處？
你們所遇見的試探，無非是人所能受的…《哥林多前書 10:13》
今天試探一詞對我們而言已經意味着不好的事，我們往往以錯誤的方式使用這個詞。試探本身不是罪，它只是我們作為人類必然會遇到的事情。不被試探就意味着我們已經可恥到被蔑視之下了。然而，我們中的許多人遭受了本不該有的試探之苦，僅僅是因為我們拒絕讓神將我們提升到一個更高的境界，在那裡我們將面臨另一種試探。
一個人的內在本質，他這個人的內住靈性部分所擁有的，決定了他在外面會受到怎樣的試探。試探符合受試探者的真實本質，並揭示他本質的可能性。每個人實際上都決定或設定了他自己所受試探的層次，因為試探將根據他內在控制的本質程度而臨到他。
試探臨到我，提示着實現我最高目標的 一條可能捷徑——它並未引導我朝向我所理解的惡，而是朝向我所理解的善。試探是讓我一時困惑的事，而我不知道那事是對還是錯。當我屈服於它時，我就將情慾當作神，而試探本身就成為證據，證明只是我自己的懼怕阻止我更早地陷入罪惡。
試探不是我們能逃避的；事實上，它對於一個人全方位生活是不可少的。要小心，別以為你受的試探是無人像你一樣——你所經歷的是人類共同的遺產，不是前所未有的。神不救我們脫離試探——祂在其中扶持我們（見希伯來書 2:18 和希伯來書 4:15-16）。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我們可以通過其祂方式了解神的屬性，但我們只能在基督的十字架中了解天父的心。《至善—禰偉大的救贖》
0917 Is There Good in Temptation?
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man… —1 Corinthians 10:13
The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.
A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.
Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal— it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.
Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else— what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations— He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15-16).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. –The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L