How to Know If You're Being Tested or Tempted | James 1: 12-16

Have you ever looked at a desire you couldn’t shake and wondered, Why would God let me want this if it’s wrong? James 1:12-16 gives us a needed correction and a huge comfort: God blesses endurance, but God is never the source of temptation. When we mix those two up, we start blaming the Father for what is actually pulling us away from Him, and our trust takes a quiet hit. 

We walk slowly through James and name the difference with plain language. Temptation isn’t God testing your obedience by dangling sin in front of you. 

To make it real, we revisit Abraham in Genesis 22 and notice the small details that reveal big trust: “We will come back,” and “God will provide.” If you’re in a hard season, you’re not alone, and you’re not automatically failing. Sometimes you’re being refined. 

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Welcome And Devotional Title

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello. You're listening to the Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast episode 114. This week's devotional is titled How to Know If You're Being Tested or Tempted. Study of James 1, 12 through 16. Let's go. Hi, I'm Jesse Morgan. I used to just share home decor and renovation tips on social media, but now I'm sharing something even closer to my heart. My journey in love for Jesus Christ, my Savior. Welcome to the Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Hawk Podcast. This is a weekly devotional I started back in May 2024, but the inspiration for it came much earlier. It was rooted in a faith journey that began when my daughter was born four months early in 2023. Through that challenging time, God worked in ways that truly amazed me. On this podcast, I share personal stories of faith woven together with Scripture to show just how incredible God's word can be in our everyday lives. My hope is that through these stories, you'll be encouraged, uplifted, and reminded of God's love and presence, no matter what you're going through. So I invite you to spend less than 15 minutes with me each week as we reflect on these devotionals together. Let's all pray within. Hello

Returning After A Hard Stretch

SPEAKER_00 1:12

and welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to be back with all of you. I am so sorry, just to start off right there. I am so sorry for the last two-week gap. Um there's been a lot going on with my family, transitions, blessings, um, changes, challenges, and honestly more than I can list. But God has been so faithful through it, and I'm glad to be back with you this week. So we're continuing our study of James. And if you haven't been with me for a bit, you know that I'm taking this book slowly, verse by verse, because there's just so much in it, and you just can't rush through. And we're still in chapter one. I know we've been here a few weeks now, but chapter one alone could carry an entire season of this podcast, honestly. So today we're looking at James 1, 12 through 16. And I

James On Testing Versus Temptation

SPEAKER_00 1:57

want to start off with verse 12. It just really, it really, really touched me for the week to start off. Um, God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And then in verse 13, I'm reading out of the New Living Translation. Uh, for verse 13, it says, And remember when you are being tempted, do not say, God is tempting me. God is never tempted to do wrong, and he will never tempt anyone else. So I want to ask you something. Have you ever blamed God for a temptation? Maybe not out loud, but maybe just quietly in your own mind. Like, why would God let me want this so badly if it's wrong? I've thought that before, but James is clear here. The book of James is very clear, and it really says that God does not tempt us ever, not once. If we're going to represent Christ as the children of God well, we have to stop letting the world believe otherwise. Temptation isn't God testing your obedience by dangling sin in front of you, it's not his character. That's Satan's game. And in verse 14 of the same chapter, it explains it plainly that temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us to drag us away. So the pull doesn't come from God, it comes from us, our own desires, our own willingness to abandon trust in God to get something our way. I looked up the um the definition of tempt, and the phrase that stopped me was abandoning trust. That's really the whole thing, isn't it? You cannot have faith um without trust intact. The moment you let go of trusting God's timing, his provision, his plan, um the door that's the door temptation walks through. And testing is a different word entirely. I looked that up too. And it means to be tested, means to be proven, refined, strengthened. It doesn't expose your weaknesses for God to laugh at. It reveals the trust that's already been there, whether you knew it or not. And

Abraham’s Mountain And Real Trust

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I want to take you back to the Bible, a Bible story I did last year with my women's group, and it was on the patriarch of Genesis. And we spent a lot of time on Abraham, as everybody knows, and the famous name, the famous person of Abraham, we all know it mostly. Um, you probably know the story. God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac, the son God promised him, the one meant to carry his whole lineage up a mountain and sacrifice him. But look at the small details in this chapter. I feel like sometimes when people go through the story, we don't look at these specific little nuggets. Um, if you look at Genesis 22, verse 5, it says Abraham tells his two servants that went with him on this long journey. And just to backtrack a little bit, God told Abraham to go take his son and to sacrifice him. And he went on this like three or four-day trip. They took two servants with them to accompany him. So this is where we're this is where we're at, basically. So in um Genesis 22, verse five, Abraham tells his servants, Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will travel a little further, we will worship there, and we will be, and we will come right back. We will come back. Not I, we remember that. Abraham had no reason to say that to his two servants, who had no idea what God had asked of him to do. He wasn't performing faith for an audience. I Abraham believed it. And then in verse 8, when Isaac asks his father where the sacrifice is, Abraham answers, God will provide a sheep, my son. That's not resignation. That's a man who had built trust with God over the decades, and it showed up the moment it mattered the most. God stopped Abraham's hand before the knife ever came down to kill Isaac and provided a ram stuck in the thicket instead. It's a hard story to sit with, usually. I I won't pretend otherwise, but I think the point is the I think I don't think the point is the horror of it. I think the point is that the darkness, most impossible moments of our life, we're not being tempted to sin. We're being tempted to see where our trust actually lives. And Abraham walked away from that mountain knowing something about himself he didn't know before and how deep his love for God really went. And what's and that's what testing does. It teaches you who you are.

A Premature Birth That Changed Faith

SPEAKER_00 7:00

I want to be honest with you, and about where this shows up in my life. Um, you know, part of our story, part of my story, me and my husband's, you know, my daughter was born four months early, less than 20% chance to live, a mass in her heart, complications with her spinal fluid. And even now, years later, there are still challenges that come with being that premature. That was a test. It was not a temptation to sin. But I'll tell you, I fell into temptation anyway, early on. I kept replaying every decision, every moment, wondering what I could have done differently to stop from going into labor so early. I blamed myself. And the doctor said in the end, Jessica, it just happens, but I still blamed myself. I had to catch myself and stop because that spiral wasn't the path I was meant to walk. That season tested my faith more than anything ever. I grew up in church. My dad was a pastor, I was in children's ministry every week, youth camp, youth camp every summer. I never fully walked away from God. But if I'm honest, he wasn't a priority. He was background noise in my life. My daughter's birth was my wake-up call. I remember standing with my husband, not really standing, but laying in the bed, of course, um, not knowing if she would survive and telling him, we can't fix this. All we can do is focus on God. I had to go up my mountain, my own mountain, and trust him with something I had zero control over. And here's what I learned about myself in that situation, that fire. I found patience I didn't know I had. I found a depth of passion, I found a depth of compassion for other mothers, for nurses, for people walking through hard things that simply wasn't there before. And that test built something in me that's still standing today. I'm telling you this now because my daughter had another surgery this past week. And before we walked in, my husband turned to me and asked me how I was feeling about it. And honestly, I told him, I feel good. He said, Me too. This surgery wasn't life-threatening like before, but more than that, we had ease. We didn't spiral into worst-case thinking. We didn't let Satan hand us fear the way he wanted to. And I believe that ease was the, you know, kind of like the fruit of a faith that had already been tested and come out so much stronger. And I think God met that faith too. Sage, my daughter, is starting a new developmental program this week, coming. Oh, I'm right at three years old, and it genuinely fell into our lap in the last three weeks. The kind of timing that only makes sense at God as God's, you know, hand. So here's what I want to leave you with today.

A Simple Way To Spot Temptation

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Know the difference between being tempted and being tested. Temptation is everywhere. The world runs on it, and it always leads the same direction towards sin, towards abandoning trust, because that's exactly what Satan wants from you. Even Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, remember that. So don't be surprised when you are being tempted as well. But being tested, I view it as it's a gift. It's not a test you fail, it's a test that shows you who you really are, what to be proud of, what needs to grow, and every single time it draws you closer to who God made you to be.

Prayer And Closing Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for never being the source of our temptation. Thank you for testing us instead. Not to break us, Lord, but to reveal the trust and faith you've already been building in us. Help us to tell the difference between the two, Lord. When we're tempted, give us the strength to resist and flee. When we're tested, give us the um the endurance to grow. Thank you for walking with us through every moment, every mountain, every moment, every surgery, every hard season, and bringing us out with more faith than when we walked in. Father, we love you and we praise you. Thank you so much for the study of James. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you so much for joining me today. Until next time, we're continuing James. Well, that wraps up this week's episode. I hope these devotions help you draw closer to God each day. If this episode encouraged you, please share it with someone who might need the same message. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a weekly episode. Also, if you feek if you feel compelled, leaving a nice review would be so appreciated as well. For more information or to reach out, check the show notes or visit jessimorganhome.com or find me on Instagram at JessieMorganLi. Remember, God's timing is always perfect. Keep trusting Him. Until next time, this is Jesse Morgan praying off.