{"id":7061,"date":"2015-10-29T00:05:07","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T07:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7061"},"modified":"2015-10-28T14:02:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T21:02:05","slug":"temptation-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/29\/temptation-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disciples said, \u201cSee, Lord, here are two swords.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s enough!\u201d he replied. <\/p>\n

\u00a0Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, \u201cPray that you will not fall into temptation.\u201d <\/p>\n

He withdrew about a stone\u2019s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, \u00a0\u201cFather, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.\u201d \u00a0An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. <\/p>\n

\u00a0When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.\u00a0\u201cWhy are you sleeping?\u201d he asked them. \u201cGet up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.\u201d (Luke 22:38\u201346)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can resist anything but temptation, so goes the old joke. What is temptation? Temptation is the desire to do something we shouldn\u2019t. It needs to be noticed that we can only be tempted\u2014enticed\u2014to do something that we would want to do. If you dislike liver, for instance, the offer of a steaming plate of liver and onions will do nothing for you. You won\u2019t be tempted at all. But change out that plate of liver for something you crave\u2014for instance a big slice of chocolate cake\u2014and suddenly you are tempted.<\/p>\n

\tTemptation is not a sin. Only giving in to the temptation is sin. And whether something is a sin is sometimes entirely dependent upon the context. After all, there is a time and place for chocolate cake. <\/p>\n

\tJesus told his disciples to pray that they wouldn\u2019t give into temptation. Why did he ask them to pray for such protection at that particular moment? Because it had been a long day, it was late at night, and the one thing the disciples really wanted at that particular moment was something that in itself was usually a good thing: sleep. So they needed to resist their natural urge. Instead, Jesus needed them to pray for him, for what he was about to face on the cross. But the disciples didn\u2019t understand. They didn\u2019t know what Jesus needed from them and so they repeatedly gave into their temptation.<\/p>\n

\tWe don\u2019t always recognize the temptation we need protection from\u2014until it is too late.<\/p>\n

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The disciples said, \u201cSee, Lord, here are two swords.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s enough!\u201d he replied. \u00a0Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, \u201cPray that you will … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7063,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061\/revisions\/7063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}