They will stand.

Temptation is none other than believing in the false promises of sin. “If I do…, I’ll surely be satisfied.”

Only the good news of God’s love for each and every one of us satisfies us.

Whenever we believe that if only we do, we’ll get what we want, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointments. Naturally, that’s exactly what we do every single day, following one false promise after another. The life built on false promises, that’s the life Jesus called us to hate.

“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25)

Why should we hate our life in this world? Why should we hate any attempt to hope in the false promises of this world? Simply because if the world is convinced that you possess something good, the world is already making plans on, not just how to convince you to share it, not just how to convince you to sell it for less than its worth, not just how to convince you to give it for free, but also how to convince you of guilt for having it as if you had stolen whatever it is they’re seeking from you. And if it means your death, the world couldn’t care less because greed is its master.

Jesus our Lord made it clear,

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-30)

Regardless of everything the world can tempt you to give away, rest assured that your eternal life in Christ Jesus, your knowledge of who Christ is and who God is, can never be taken, sold, stolen, bribed away from you because such life from above, such hope from the Father cannot be compromised by the schemes of men or angels or anything of all creation.

Paul rightly declared that,

” For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

The world lives by temptations. We, the church in Christ, live by revelations of the Holy Spirit to our regenerated human spirit.

We don’t fear temptations. We go through them and are revealed by God that they are not what they claim to be. We listen to the testimonies of others who have fallen and avoid by grace similar falls. We confess to one another how we erred and how the Lord opened our eyes and restored our hope, our eyes of understanding to Himself so that the false promises, the misleading claims of the world are unveiled to be what they are in all truthfulness.

We slip and fall and learn our lessons and Christ pick us right back up. After all, we are his children born by grace, being raised by grace.

Every business is a fraud, a scam as soon as it’s failing to deliver as promised and yet still collecting funds and attention as if everything is rolling along just fine.

Christ, unlike most businesses, delivers to death, in death, and out of death.

We’re tempted by our wishful thinking. If anyone knows what you wish for, they can easily say the right words, put up the right play, and flee with your trust and all that follows it like a fish trusts in a bait.

We dream of things without understanding their consequences.

If our heart is ever delayed at longing for the mercy of God alone, much sufferings and disappointments are in the work for us and our surroundings.

Hold on the hope we have in God, the hope whose name is Christ Jesus, the hope who dwells in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the hope of eternal life, and every temptation will already have seemed and been a waste of time on the part of the tempter.

Christ said it best as we look at the innate vanity of things:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)

Our choices in this earthly life is bad and worse. That’s why we’re best at hating it.

A King once asked God to allow him a few more days to live. It didn’t make any difference whether he died now or later. He was going to die for sure, regardless.

Eternal life, something the world cannot provide, is well and secured in Christ and Christ alone. And it’s not a life causing us to suffer this world, but a life causing us to suffer the love, joy and peace of God in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Again, Jesus our Lord made it clear,

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-30)

“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25)

If you love your life in this world, you will lose it because whatever it is you treasure so much about your life in this world will soon be snatched from you by circumstances that only exist in this world. But if your hope is beyond the false promises of this world, such hope is already rightly substantiated by Christ living in you to the glory of God, His God, His Father, our Father.

Even though we suffer them from time to time, we don’t fear temptations at any measure because our Lord, Christ Jesus, is able to restore the sight of our hope in him at any moment.

“To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” (Romans 14:4)

He is able to make them stand. Glory, Hallelujah, they will stand, for Jesus is able to make them stand.

“Tell Peter too.”