Good morning people who listen to and obey the voice of God

James 1:13-15 NIV When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

The devil tried to trap Adam & Eve in a desire for what was forbidden by God. He does the same with us today. At this point, they had not sinned, and at this point in our lives, we have not sinned.

Sin only takes place when we are ‘united with or we clasp onto’ the desire that presents itself. This is what the word ‘conceived’ means here. We only sin when we give into a forbidden desire.

Adam & Eve were tempted to eat fruit that God had made. It was good fruit made by a good God. Eating fruit was not the sin – disobeying what God had said was the sin. The fruit was the decoy to deceive, and as a result, to trap Adam & Eve.

If Adam & Even had not eaten the fruit that God had told them not to eat, they would have been sinless, even if they had a desire for it. Why? Because in the case of their temptation, the desire was presented to them by the devil.

We must stop being deceived by an enemy who will even use good things that God has made to try and get us to go against what God has said. In other words, not every temptation is to do something defiled, polluted or perverse.

Temptation at its core is simply an opportunity to go against what God has said. Sometimes it is blatant and sometimes it is subtle. Sometimes it is for something perverse and sometimes it is for something good.

The way through is to know the voice of God and to refuse to obey any voice contrary to Him.