TEMPTATION TO LOVE

                               TEMPTATION TO LOVE

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A friend on Facebook posted this scripture without comment.  It describes an issue the psalmist dealt with two thousand eight hundred years ago, which affects each of us in the 21^st century.

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29 Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me Your   law.
30 I have chosen the faithful way; I have placed Your ordinances before me.
31 I cling to Your testimonies; O Yahweh, do not put me to shame!
32 I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.
Psalm 119:29-32

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Nearly forty-five years ago, as a new believer, I was seeing a young woman with whom inordinate physical intimacy was inevitable.  She was beautiful and willing, and I craved conjugal gratification.  I knew my desire opposed God’s ordinances, so I went to Him with my dilemma.  “God, I want this.”   

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It made no difference; at that point, that yielding meant long-term sorrow.  Knowing Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching” was not enough to dilute my passion.  I remember, as if it were yesterday, telling God, “I’m sorry, but I don’t love You or me enough to keep from doing this.”  Instantly I sensed another Spirit reasoning with me, “I know you don’t love Me or yourself enough, but I know you can love her enough.”  Somehow, that word, enlarged my heart, and I was able to love her enough.  However, keeping that relationship pure not God’s ultimate objective.  God’s endgame is more than merely our righteousness.

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The 119th Psalm is the prayer of someone, personally acquainted with God.  He like all of us who are familiar with the Lord, love Him.  Why is that so?  It is because He is love.  When we recognize who He is, we see who we really are, and we know we are not Love.  Even though, the dissimilarities between God and us are vast, we long to know Him and His love more intimately.    

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Part of the gap stems from our inordinate passions.  He opposes much of what attracts me.  Obvious a more intimate relationship with God demanded a heart expansion.  However, just like the psalmist, I imagine setting some noble goals was the way to reach that intimacy. 

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The psalmist, likely King David, selected three goals he planned to take to achieve his heart increase.  He even had a couple of suggested he thought God should take.  Finally, in frustration, he whimpered, “O Yahweh, do not put me to shame!”  Only God’s Sovran power can affect the needed change.  David conceded that human determination was insufficient to “run the way of Your commandments.”  Knowing a heart expansion was God’s will, David relented saying, “You will enlarge my heart.”

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I ran the first twenty years of my Christian life as if my goals were a compact between God and me.  Frankly, I ran my Christian race, pretty well that way, for two decades.  Then disastrous financial and professional setbacks knocked me off stride.  Casting lust aside was no longer easily choice.  No matter how hard I tried, I was repeatedly ashamed of my performance.

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I lacked the strength to make the classic leap, between Romans 7 and 8.  The good I wanted to do, was not always what I actually did.  I too, finally realized choosing proper goals failed to get the job done.  I needed God to, “enlarge my heart.” 

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The “false way” is not something externally imposed on us.  It is rather, internally self-generated.  Removing the “false way from me” is and was humanly impossible.  It is our way…it is who we are.  That is why those four verses are not the shout of a victorious gold medal winner, but a plea from a runner, losing the race.  

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So, how does God enlarge our heart?  Well, He will do it only at our request.  The key to enlarging the heart has both a cerebral and a willingness component, neither of which we can do, on our own.  I will explain that element later.  For now, I need to point out that enlargement starts with us asking, not for victory over sin, but asking for awareness of Him in us, within a believing and willing heart.  There are two reasons recognition is essential.  1) He already gained victory over sin, on the cross, and 2) that victorious One is in our heart, by His indwelling Spirit.  As important as those intellectual aspects are, our “will” add two other essentials.  He will not override our will, so 3) we must be willing to acknowledge Him when we recognize Him.  Finally, we must also 4) be willing to yield to his will, preferring His will instead of our own.  This final consideration becomes easier knowing God, Who loves you, is not just standing with you, but is standing-up, in you. 

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  “O Lord, enlarge the chambers of my heart that I may find room for Thy love.  Sustain me by Thy power, lest the fire of Thy love consume me.”

Prayer from the 16^th century French dishwasher, Brother Lawrence The Practice of the Presence of God

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Now, what do we perceive when see Him within?  Remember, our spirit is the one that desires that which is inordinate.  It is His Spirit that desiring the good.  Psalm 119 is coming from the heart of a man, but what is voiced is, not solely, his desire, but the desire of God.  The desire for something godly, is never purely ours alone.  It is a desire influenced and shaped by God’s Spirit.  For that reason, when a Christian experience an unusually selfless giving type of love moving within, which is compatible with the Biblical record of Christ Jesus, he can rest assured he is witnessing God’s Spirit within his heart.  The believer’s spirit, at that moment, is looking at God.

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1 John 4:2 “By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.”  Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.”  1 John 3:23+24 “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

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At that moment of recognition, you have a choice.  You can acknowledge His presence or you can tell yourself that, despite the general fallen nature of humanity, you are by nature an unusually godly person.  That is like pretending you are one giant step above the Apostle Paul, who knew God was in him but was unable to yield to God’s ordinances, admitting, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”  If you can bring yourselves to confess that your mortal human nature is selfish, then you will recognize the immortal origin of those godly tendencies and their extra-mortal source.  When you do, as Paul did, you will likely, “want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection.”  There is a conscious that God is in you, which allows you to quietly yield to God’s ordinances contentedly.  God’s Spirit and our spirit inhabiting a single expanded heart in peace. 

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Therefore, running the way of God’s commandments is not us actually defeating sin, but our escape from sin.  His way is our turning to Him at the first sign of temptation (called repentance), and asking Him to allow us to discern Him within us.  Do not fight the evil desire, yield to God’s desire instead.  Sadly, if you are strong enough to fight sin and win, you not only miss the opportunity to know God within more intimately, but pride in your victory is a heart condition God hates. 

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Incidentally, temptation, in-and-of itself, is not evil.  Our selfish desires are.  Temptations remind us that our consciousness of our indwelling God has slipped, and needs renewing.  There is pleasure in finding Him alive in our expanded heart.  A joy we miss when we float along temptation free.  The Lord’s Prayer distinguishes between temptation and evil saying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.”  The prayer is more a reminder, than a request.  “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”  That is why the prayer designates temptation and evil separately.  We need no one to lead is into temptation, as mentioned earlier, they have no problem finding us, on their own.  However notice, God is the One who delivers us from evil (not from temptation).  Evil reaches all of us, and usually accompany our yielding to inordinate desires.  

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It may surprise you that over these last twenty years, I have grown to cherish each invitation to sin (temptation) knowing they automatically causes me to turn to God within.  Acknowledging His presents here, in my heart, is a deeply pleasure-full experience.  In my life, experiencing temptation rescues me from spiritual complacency.  Unfortunately, Christians, who appropriate hate sin, usually confused sin and temptation, as the same things.

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Fixated on stamping out the sources of temptation has led us to amplify, rather than reduce the allure of a number of human urges.  Instead, we should focus on the individuals harmed by yielding to their inordinate desires.  Their constricted hearts are defenseless against self-destructive desires.  Our determination to arrest temptations seems to overshadow God, as the Way.  “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” 

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Understood for what it is, temptation is not a disorder.  For those who know the indwelling God, it is a drastic, yet beneficial, reminder of God’s abiding love and presence.   

Therefore, let us say with the psalmist of old, “I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.”

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