Standing your ground when temptation comes - Greg Laurie - http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/standing-your-ground-when-temptation-comes/
Pastor Greg Laurie points to trio of teenagers who served God before man
Philips Brooks said that "character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones."
Hardship, temptation and tragedy will come into your life one day. Trials and temptations will come your way one day. But you can take steps now to be prepared. There will come a time when temptations will threaten to pull in the wrong direction. Will you be able to stand when that day of testing comes? That is entirely up to you.
You see, there are some things that only God can do. And there are some things that only I can do. Only God can forgive sin, but only I can repent of it. God won't repent for me. I have to do that.
In the same way, only God can get you through your hardship. But only you can take hold of his promises and believe him. If you want to know whether you will make it in the day of testing, you need to start thinking about it now. The stand you make today will determine what kind of stand you make tomorrow. The end of your life is determined by the beginning of it. The evening is determined by the morning.
It is not unlike building a house. The most important time when you build a house is not when you hang pictures on the wall or lay your carpet down or landscape the yard. Those are the fun parts. The most important time when you build a house is when things like the foundation, electrical, and the plumbing are done. If these things are not done properly, then everything else won't matter.
The same is true of life. The most important time is in the beginning when you are laying the foundation. And if you don't get that right, then everything else is of no consequence. When it is all said and done, character counts. In fact, it is the most important thing in a person's life. It is not a matter of what you think you are or what other people think you are, but who you really are.
It comes down to this. When you are all alone, when no one is looking and there is no one to impress, that is who you are. The measure of our real character is what we would do if we knew that we never would be found out. What would you do if you knew you could get away with it? That reveals true character. You decide what principles you will live by. You decide what road you will take.
The Bible tells the truth about the heroes and villains in its pages. It is a very honest book. If a hero messed up, the Bible tells us that. There are people who started well and self-destructed, like Saul and Samson. There are other people who started well but messed up toward the end of their lives, like Gideon or Noah or even Moses. We have other people who had character from beginning to end and did well throughout their lives, like Joseph and Daniel.
Many times when we tell our own stories, we want to airbrush out our flaws and inconsistencies. But the Bible doesn't do that. When Oliver Cromwell's portrait was being painted, he told the artist, "Paint me warts and all!" That is what the Bible does. It gives us its heroes and its villains, warts and all.
Yet the Bible tells the story of four young men who didn't seem to have any warts. Their names were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were ready for a major test later in life because they made a stand in a relatively small area first. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego lived in Babylon, where they had been carried away captive from Judah.
It is believed by many Bible commentators that these four young men were somewhere between the ages of 14 and 19. Their world, as they knew it, literally changed overnight. They went from living in a simple, God-fearing culture to a decadent one. These young men were torn away from their parents and placed in an alien culture of paganism and unparalleled luxury. They suddenly found themselves in the very palace of the great King Nebuchadnezzar. And they were facing heavy-duty temptation.
The world was their oyster. Before them were the most delicious foods and wine on the planet. Nebuchadnezzar was sure that such young men would be seduced by all of that luxury. But he had not considered one thing: They had character. Nebuchadnezzar changed their names and their home address, but he could not change their hearts. They had a God to serve and a stand to make. The Bible tells us that "Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods" (Daniel 1:8 NLT). Another version says, "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself" (NKJV, emphasis mine).
How would Daniel defile himself by eating the food made in the king's kitchen? I can only offer a guess, but I think one obvious reason would be that it violated the dietary laws God had given to Israel. But I think that perhaps another reason was that the food had been dedicated to the false gods of Babylon. Daniel made a stand in this area because for him, it was wrong.
He made a deal with the man who was in charge of enforcing the king's will and basically said, "You eat your rich, luxurious food, and my friends and I will eat vegetables and drink water for 10 days. Let's see who comes out best when it is all said and done."
The Bible tells us that "at the end of 10 days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies" (Daniel 1:15). God blessed them because they were faithful in the small things.
Here is the question: Are you going to bow, or are you going to stand your ground? There will come a day when you will be tempted. Will you have the strength to stand? You decide that now. When we make a stand in the small areas of our lives, it will give us the ability to make a stand in the larger, more challenging ones.
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