A Time of Temptation

by F.B. Meyer

Lamentations 3:19-26

You will be tempted to the end of your life, and the nearer you live to Christ the more you will be tempted... The [one] who sees the heavenly vision is the [one] whom the devil will tempt to the uttermost. God will permit it because temptation does for us what the storms do for the oaks - it roots us - and what the fire does for the painting on porcelain - it makes us permanent. You never know that you have a grip on Christ, or that he has a grip on you so well as when the devil is using all his force to attract you from him; then you feel the pull of Christ's right hand.
As long as the soldier slinks outside the battle, he faces little danger, but let him plunge in and follow the captain and he will soon have the bullets flying about him. Some of us have had a good time because there was no use in the devil wasting powder and shot upon us; we haven't been doing him any harm. But once we begin to wake up and set to work for God, the devil will set a thousand evils to worrying us...
The nearer you get to Christ the more you will have to do with temptation. The closer you get into the heart of the fight the more the devil will torment you... But the virulence of the temptation means not that you are declining into sin, but that you are advancing in holiness; that the devil is afraid of you and hopes only to wound Christ by hurting you.