God has given us life so that we might spend it with Him for eternity

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For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? --Mark 8:36-37 By far the greatest marvel of human life is the marvel of our eternal soul. Man was made as an eternal and spiritual being, which is what it means to be made in God’s image. The Bible also calls this resemblance we have to God being made in His likeness. This doesn’t necessarily refer to our physical appearance, but to the fact that we have an immaterial part called the soul or spirit that allows us to understand and respond to God. This incredible spiritual capacity to know God is one of the main distinctions between humans and animals. We may have a similar physical structure to some animals, and eat the same foods that some animals eat, but we are made distinctively different. That means we are not descended from any animal. You and I were created by the hand of God! It’s true that we will die physically someday just as animals do. But even in death the profound differences between humans and the rest of creation continue, because we were made for eternal existence…for life with God forever. Our spirits never die, but will exist forever in either heaven or hell. God made us to be able to spend eternity with Him. Share that good news with someone you know today. God has given us life so that we might spend it with Him for eternity.

The Source of Temptation

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
James 1:12–15

Starting a few hundred years after the life of Jesus, a new idea arose as different groups began to promote living completely apart from the world. What came to be known as monasteries were established across much of Europe. Groups of men or women would leave the world behind and close themselves inside the walls. There they would work and pray together, apart from the distractions and temptations of the world.
While in theory the idea of escaping the world as a means of protection from temptation sounds good, it overlooks two important facts. First, it is not God’s plan for us to be isolated from the world. The night before His crucifixion Jesus petitioned His Father, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:15–16).
Withdrawing from the world also overlooks the basic reality that the primary source of temptation is not outward but inward. It is not possible to go to a place where we are safe from temptation, because we take “us” with us wherever we go. The battle with sin begins with the desires that we harbor in our hearts, and that is the field of battle on which we overcome the enemy.
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

The secret to victory over sin lies in bringing our thoughts and desires into subjection to God.