Once again Warren Wiersbe shares great insight here when he states: “The devil tempts us to bring out the worst in us, but the Father tests us to bring out the best in us.”1
The Scriptures are clear that Satan tempts us to sin and disobey God. We see this all the way back in the Garden of Eden when we read: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’” (Genesis 3:1). This was a clear temptation since God had earlier told Adam and Eve that they were not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17). And to show that the devil tempts everyone we see in (Matthew 4) that he even tempted Jesus, for we read: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1).
It is the devil’s clear strategy to get us to not trust God, but instead to tempt us to satisfy our own needs and lusts at the expense of God’s glory. But does God sometimes tempt us? Scripture clearly teaches that God never tempts us to disobey Him or sin for we read: “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” (James 1:13). But what God often does do is test us to see if we will trust and obey Him instead of our own lusts, which Satan always appeals to. We see this testing often in the books of Deuteronomy and Judges where God tests the people of Israel to see if they will obey the commandments of the Lord. (see Deuteronomy 8:2, 8:16, Judges 2:22, 3:1, 3:4).
When the devil tempts us, as Wiersbe shared in his quote above, it brings out the worst in us because his sole desire is to satisfy a fleshly lust in us at the expense of obeying God’s commandments. In other words, the devil is telling us – me first and God second. However, when God tests us He wants to see what’s in our heart, and is our motive – God first. Thus, when we obey God we pass His test and this pleases Him and brings out the best in us.
Both temptation and testing have one thing in common and it can be summed up in one word: obedience. We can either obey our own desires at the expense of God’s desires when tempted by the devil or obey God’s desires over our own desires when tested by God.
In closing, I would like to leave you with a wonderful verse from (Psalm 37:4) which reads: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I believe that the more we fall in love with Jesus and the Word, the more our desires will match up with His desires and we will not only be able to pass the many tests that God presents us with, but we will find that His ways are even more enjoyable than our own past sinful desires. The more we take delight in Jesus the more our desires will line up with His desires and the more joy we will experience in life. And my friends the permanent joy that Jesus offers us is so much better than the very temporary pleasures of sin!
1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY WARREN W. WIERSBE (of 89) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
When is temptation apostasy – can one ever correct course and be forgiven