well... while i wait for my son to come home i had a chance to clean out some old stacked up paper... came across John Piper's lecture on John Newton.... man was I grabbed and helped by the one footnote my eyes fell upon... containing these words:
the question: "Why does the Lord permit some of his people to suffer such violent assaults from the powers of darkness" ?
--not to gratify Satan, but
-- to humble and prove His people;
-- to show His children what is in their hearts,
-- to make them truly sensible of their immediate and absolute dependence upon him and
-- to quicken them if to watchfulness and prayer"
He goes on to suggest that another design (of God) of temptation is "for the manifestation of his power, and wisdom, and grace, in supporting the soul under such pressures as are evidently beyond its own strength to sustain"
RP: I read this to mean that God uses our struggles & temptations to show how HE -- and not our wit or strength-- is our sustaining strength. He gets all the glory. I get humbled, and the opportunity to praise and worship my Savior God.
the whole footnote is here
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