Day 173

1 Kings 9:10-11:13, Acts 15:1-21, Psalms 77:1-9

It’s not new, and we keep on saying it, but I cannot help getting disappointed when one of greats of the Bible messes it up. Solomon seemed to be doing so well, the Queen of Sheba noted his wisdom, yet he was daft enough to get blinded by sex and beautiful women – silly man.

All of these people (the ones that get it wrong) do give us a salutary warning though. When things are going well with God, we are open to all kinds of temptation. Jesus himself told us to pray – “lead us not into temptation”, and sometimes we need to pray this very hard to stop us going the way of Solomon (or the others for that matter).

We do have a bit of a secret weapon on our side though – Grace. No matter what is thrown in our way, no matter what the devil tries to tempt us with, the grace and love of Christ is more than sufficient when we let it into our lives. The disciples are having a bit of an argument about the power of this grace, is it sufficient enough to get round whether someone is circumcised or not, can it get round racial boundaries, or is it confined to the Jews. Peter points them to the work of God himself through the Holy Spirit, the day it chose to baptise Gentiles and Jew alike.

This grace is made available to us and we may already know it in a very real and personal way. Even if things are going good with God at the moment, (and perhaps it is more important to do this if you are good with God), pray that the grace of the Christ through the Holy Spirit will surround and enfold you, leading you not into temptation.