HALT!

Scripture

Now the snake was more able to fool others than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say that you should not eat from any tree in the garden?”

~Genesis 3:1, NLV

Quote

The devil always begins with our desires.

~Charles Stanley

I listen to Charles Stanley when I am driving and today I listen to a sermon about temptation. Dr. Stanley has a formula to follow when tempted: it is H.A.L.T. or wait just a minute. He says the devil tempts us when we are vulnerable–Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. Jesus was hungry when Satan tempted Him. Moses was angry and unfortunately, yielded to the temptation. Jeremiah was lonely and Elijah was tired. Satan attacks at the point of our desires. The desire to eat is not bad, nor is it evil to want a friend or companion. God had given Adam and Eve on one prohibition. They had everything you could possible want: there were no weeds in the garden, no guilt, no sorrow, no shame and no death. Where did Satan attack? On the one thing God had not given them; permission to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Have you every wondered why we humans can be surrounded by good things and yet we are unhappy because of the one thing we want that we don’t have.

The truth is: God doesn’t want to withhold anything from us unless is not good for us but there are somethings that we are not ready to receive and so God wants us to wait patiently for Him to provide. Satan steps in and whispers in the ear, “Why wait? You want it and there it is, so reach up and take it.” Eve convinced herself that the fruit was what she wanted most: she wanted it more than she wanted to obey God, but though the fruit tasted delicious and give her a buzz {a moment of delight}, the fruit had a worm in it, a fatal worm and she partook of own demise. You have to live a few years to figure it out, but what we need to focus on is our needs and not our wants. Pursuing your wants {desires} will never make you happy. Our utmost desire should be to please Jesus and to be obedient to Him. Be leery of all other desires. The Bible teaches us that God will supply all our needs whereas the devil’s basic temptation is to encourage us to meet our own needs. Don’t trust God; He will make you wait–pursue your desires. You can make this happen. Give us a little credit, we humans are good at making things happen but what happens after you get what you wanted?

When we get what we want, it is not long until we don’t want what we’ve got. That thing we wanted; that thing that we just had to have; that thing that we would not wait for God to provide will become a source of deep dissatisfaction and disillusionment. This is why the happiest people in the world are those who have practically nothing and they don’t care because they have learned to focus on needs. On the other hand the most dissatisfied and miserable people in the world have a closet filled with wants. God is good! He is not going kill you because you failed to trust Him; humans have been doing this for 6,000 years but you will come to regret not trusting HIM. When you pray for HIM to get you out of the mess you have gotten yourself into; He may respond with a “Wait…I am not bailing you out just yet…you have more to learn.”

Extra

Consider this our weekend blog. LORD willing,Joe David, Noah and myself will leave for Israel tonight. We will lose time going so Monday is a travel day and we return on Friday. This means we have three days of touring: two in Judea and one in Galilee. I am packing ALAP so I will not be carrying books. I am going to use the bible apt on my phone. The next blog will be Monday March 28. I may send updates on the trip from my iPad but they will be very brief if I do. This is an opt I could not pass up but I am like Ty when it comes to traveling: I want to be there instantly and back home the same way. Fifteen hours in the air is a long time for Eugene the II and Eugene the III.

God bless you: I hope you have a great day.

 

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