Enduring Temptation by Dawn Mooring

1Cor. 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

How would you define temptation? Would you say it's the desire to go after things or experience you shouldn't? Perhaps it's going for the dessert when you're on a diet, late night web-surfing on forbidden sites, flirting outside of your marriage, speeding to get where you want when you want... Certainly these are examples of going after what we shouldn't go after. What I know to be true as well, temptation is also not going after something we should.

Daily I get directives from God to send a note, make a call, put in the offering plate, love the unlovely, BUT I don't. I refuse to go after what is best. I settle for laziness, procrastination, living in fear of risk... Temptation then, can be either active or passive. Giving in to temptation either way yields poor endings. I’ve passed my 50^th birthday but am still memorizing Scripture. I want to stay sharp both spiritually and mentally. Crossword puzzles may help my mind but not my spirit – so kill two birds with one stone. Right now I’m attempting to take on James Chapter 1. My verse today, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation..."

The word blessed means to be truly happy. To endure is to successively and victoriously survive a trial or testing. Temptation is a trial or testing. So when you put this altogether, you have great words of wisdom. You’ll be the happiest when you go through a tempting time and resist the urge to give into it. Your choice to be active when God speaks, or be passive when God speaks, will determine your true level of happiness, success, and victory. Self denial doesn't get easier with age. At 57 I am still struggling denying my fleshly desires.

So today I ask myself this question, “Do I want the temporary happiness that temptation is flaunting me with, or the true happiness of endurance with success and victory that may take awhile?" Today I pray to endure.

Are you ready to give in to temptation? Refuse the urge and hand over to God the struggle. His grace is enough for you!

Dawn Mooring is an experienced speaker, teacher, author. She has been published in THE UPPER ROOM and christiandevotions.us and Inspireafire. Dawn has counseling certification through Grace Ministries International and in women’s ministry though American Association of Christian Counselors. Her passion is to know God and His Word and to share the abundant life found in Christ. Dawn is a television co-host on The Christian View. For more info, check out www.dawnmooring.com and dawnmooring.blogspot.com.

Efficacious Love

“This is real love--not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:10 

This was the summer for weddings! Chapels, barns, seaside, and riverside, I’ve witnessed them all. My favorite – a simple ceremony with profound nuptial vows. The pastor challenged the couple to love each other efficaciously. That's a mighty big word and I had no idea what it meant. The dictionary defines “efficacious” as the power or capacity to produce a desired effect. In simple terms, what you pour into something and how you pour, has an end result. The couple received the challenge to love in such a way that the results would be manifested in building the other person up, in making them a better person, a better spouse. The one loving efficaciously would receive proportionately to the degree they poured in love. I guess the premise is – love much and receive much back! This sounds great and many times efficacious love works to the benefit of both parties and the glory of God. Yet, there are those times when one person loves as efficaciously as they can, but the recipient just can't receive that kind of love, or takes advantage of it. I guess that would be a love gone wrong song for sure. I’ve experienced this in my life.

What a blessing it is to love and be loved efficaciously. I know this kind of love in my marriage of twenty four years. It has made me a better wife and partner.

I have experienced this kind of love by God. He has loved me unconditionally. His efficacious love has produced a life in me, and around me, and for me, which I would never have known. His love has caused me to love others when I didn't want to, help when I didn't want to, and release hurt when I desired to hurl back the hurt thrust on me.

There is not enough space here to fill what God's efficacious love has done in my life. People often love to get something back. This is a self centered love. But God, He loves because that is Who He is. When God loves efficaciously, the power and effect is more than we can fathom. His love for us, and in us, and through us, has the power and effect to change lives in our homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches...

Sometimes we find it hard to believe that God desires to love us with no conditions. But, He does.

Are you struggling to believe this?

Will you receive God’s efficacious love and be built up?

Who will you love efficaciously today?

Dawn Mooring is an experienced speaker, teacher, author. She has been published in THE UPPER ROOM and christiandevotions.us and Inspireafire. Dawn has counseling certification through Grace Ministries International and in women’s ministry though American Association of Christian Counselors. Her passion is to know God and His Word and to share the abundant life found in Christ. Dawn will be a television co-host on The Christian View airing September 2014. For more info, check out www.dawnmooring.com and dawnmooring.blogspot.com.

Sleep Walking ~ A Guest Post by Dawn Mooring

 “When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.” Genesis 22:9

 

Somnabulism is a technical term for sleep walking. Sleepwalkers arise during a certain stage of sleep. In a state of low consciousness, they perform activities usually accomplished while fully awake. They can cook, clean, drive, and perform various functions they have no recollection of after waking up. Their eyes may be open and they may appear to know what they are doing. However, upon waking they have little or no recall of what they accomplished while sleeping.

I’ve never physically done any sleep walking, but spiritually I have done this numerous times. Life has thrown me some curve balls. I’ve been hit with some difficult and painful experiences. I’ve wrestled with them AND with God over them. I’ve cried, prayed, and exhausted myself trying to fix my situations. When all efforts have failed, I generally find myself at the throne of grace. At this sacred place, I surrender all. I drop what hit me and place it on the altar of sacrifice. At times I walk away in peace, knowing my Lord will do something far greater than I can think or imagine with my “life interruption.” In full disclosure, I admit there are times I walk away in fear. What if God doesn’t fix or change things to my liking? What if the painful thing escalates my pain to an even greater level, even though He’s in control?

If I refuse to surrender and try to remold, peel off, or cosmetically fix my problem, it doesn’t go away. Often I fret and stew and run from friend to friend, begging for answers, prayer, and sympathy. If I do so while still holding onto my pain I only experience a temporary peace. There is nothing wrong with getting help, prayer, or advice, as long as these measures don’t replace heading to the altar of grace. Dropping our dilemmas and surrendering our all to God is a huge leap of faith. Leaving what we deposit there is another giant step.

Do we ever look down into our hands only to find them clutching onto what we had once laid on the altar? Did we sleepwalk and go get it back?

I have been an “Indian Giver” before. I’ve handed God my problem and taken it back. Either consciously or subconsciously I tried to regain control of what I had previously released. Then the weighty load returned. Did I do this in my sleep? No. I chose at some point to trust in my frail human reasoning rather than in an Almighty God. If His grace is sufficient (and it is!) then I must lay everything on the altar and not make a return trip. This is the walk which delivers true, uninterrupted rest.

Dawn Mooring is an international speaker, teacher, and author. She has been published in THE UPPER ROOM and christiandevotions.us. Dawn has counseling certification through Grace Ministries International and in women’s ministry though American Association of Christian Counselors. Her passion is to know God and His Word. For more info on Dawn check out www.dawnmooring.com and dawnmooring.blogspot.com.