February 16
"The parents of Jesus were poor, and dependent upon their daily toil. He was familiar with poverty, self-denial, and privation. This experience was a safeguard to Him. In His industrious life there were no idle moments to invite temptation. No aimless hours opened the way for corrupting associations. So far as possible, He closed the door to the tempter. Neither gain nor pleasure, applause nor censure, could induce Him to consent to a wrong act. He was wise to discern evil, and strong to resist it."
Desire of Ages, page 72 from the chapter, 'As a child'
A few years back a friend was talking in a psychology class about sublimation as a method of avoiding doing something that you would otherwise do and so avoid falling into a sinful activity.
I had worked as a chemist and knew that sublimation was the process whereby something goes from a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid phase. That meant I didn’t understand my friend’s reference.
A person who wants to stop smoking decides that instead of smoking a cigarette he will chew a carrot instead. That was one of the methods I used.
We could say that Jesus as a youngster and as a more mature youngster avoided temptation by working instead of sinning.
It would be possible to copy that method. I’m sure that this would work, up to a point. Dog-tired at the end of the day we would fall into bed having avoided temptation after temptation. What happens when the temptation sneaks up on you when you are having a short break? You are powerless. You have no experience with temptation. You are also so busy that you have no time with God. A better method must be sought.
Jesus was placed where temptation was so that by degrees He would learn to say, ‘no’ to sin. Jesus also gained from another tactic. Jesus simply closed the door to the tempter. He had already chosen to say, “no”.
We then have three methods to use to fight temptation. The first is to simply decide that you will say ‘no’. The second method is to train yourself to say, ‘no’ while the third method, only to be used in conjunction with a solid relationship with God, is to be busy about the work assigned to you.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
