Endures temptation

James 1:12 “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him.”

Looks like, if we are going to receive a crown, we will have to walk through some temptation while we are here on the Earth. Temptation always comes from the devil, and it is interesting to me that temptation is referenced in this verse with the crown received at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

The Word says that God is not tempted with evil, nor does He tempt anyone else with evil, so we can clearly see that it is the devil who is trying to keep us from receiving our crown. The enemy brings temptations to your flesh to get you into sin because he knows when sin does its work, the end will be death.

What is the devil trying to kill? Your destiny! The devil seems to work non-stop trying to get people off their course by bringing all kinds of sin, but we know the Lord loves us and has sent His Word and the Holy Ghost to help us when temptation comes.

Temptations will try you. They will also test you by showing whether you have your flesh under control, or it is controlling you. It is very evident that we will not be able to finish our course unless we get rid of the sin that Hebrews says “besets us.” That sin tries to get us off course and out of the race that God has so clearly laid out for us.

If we will daily endure, if we won’t give in, and if when we sin, we will confess that sin and get back in the race, then at the end, we will receive the crown of life that we will be able to lay at Jesus’ feet.