Temptation & Suffering

Since this weekend I've been thinking about this kind of earth-shattering idea regarding temptation. You ready?

Experiencing intense temptation is not a sign that you have not made progress. It is not a sign that you are not a changed person.

Instead, it is an invitation to suffer and be sanctified through Jesus, by Jesus, so that you can become more like Jesus. Jesus suffered in temptation, and Jesus identifies with our temptation. So when pain and temptation come, run to him with it. Trust that he will fill the vacuum left behind when you stop running to your own functional comfort mechanisms.

This is an idea that has been difficult for me to understand because I tend to so stringently measure my "success" or "progress" by the level of temptation and suffering that I experience. Days when I am tempted frequently or suffer much become "bad" days and I automatically assume God is somehow not present in those kinds of days. Days when I am not tempted or do not suffer become the "good" days. This is such a false dichotomy.

God is with me in my pain as much as he is with me in my joy. The day that I am tempted or suffer much is not a "bad" day - it might certainly be a painful one, but it is a very good day in the sense that I have been invited to suffer alongside Jesus, to be sanctified and further renewed to become more like the man I was created to be. This is what it means to find joy in suffering.

Those moments of intense temptation and pain - those are the moments when Jesus can show up in the most unexpected and powerful ways. The moments when we are weakest are the moments in which his strength becomes perfect - and I am so, so grateful for that truth.