TEMPTATION is something all of us face in one way or another. We are tempted to do what God forbids or to choose some way of living that is not in keeping with God’s commandments. Jesus reminds us to ask God to preserve us when we face temptation and to protect us from evil.
But what have you experienced when you asked God to remove a certain temptation from your life? Did that temptation just go away? God can certainly remove a particular temptation from your life, but often he doesn’t. Why not? Why doesn’t God remove the temptation, especially if it is in an area where you have struggled and failed often? You would think that removing the temptation from you so you no longer had to struggle would make growth in godliness easier. And doesn’t God want you to grow in godliness?
What is hard to understand is that God might know better than you do what will bring the greatest growth in your life. If you didn’t struggle with temptation, with disappointments, with questions about what God is up to, how would you learn to depend on him rather than depending on your own strength and determination? God knows what you need in order to learn dependence.
Psalm 62 encourages us to pour out our hearts to God and to rest in him alone rather than relying on human methods, determination or ingenuity. Can you trust God even when you can’t understand what he is doing in your life? Times of testing of any kind are also opportunities for temptation, specifically, to reject what God says about his goodness and wisdom. Resting in God is not something that happens just by telling yourself to stop being anxious. Heart change is not something you work up by trying harder to do what is right. You can’t change your restless heart by sheer willpower.
That’s why dependent prayer is so important.