Is It Possible?

"The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord test the heart." -Proverbs 17:3

"Jesus said to him, "Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.'" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him."-Matthew 4:10-11

Here is a popular debate over the years: "Who do I blame for my problems?" In most cases there are three choices involved. I can blame myself, I can blame satan, or I can blame God(the popular choice for some reason). I thought we could look in Matthew and see how Jesus handled his temptation in the desert. While he does not come out and blame any one I do find it helpful the way he handled the situation. For each of the three temptations Jesus used scripture to solve the temptation.
Today we always want to blame someone else for our problems. We could stomp our toe on a door facing and we would blame the builder for putting a door way in that spot! I like to think that everything that happens, good and bad, is some form of a test. A way to always be sizing me up to see where I am progressing and where I am lacking. This doesn't mean I always respond in the best of ways but maybe that is God showing me how to gain self control. I believe there is a simple solution to the question who causes things to happen to us. I love to hear our elders say "that mean ole devil is testing you." Well you know what, once again they are right. However if we look behind the scenes my Bible teaches me that my God is and always will be stronger then satan. Therefore God will never allow satan to test us with more than we can handle. (heard that before huh) The last part is the part is where most fail to search. Why is God testing me? The proverbs for today tells us the God will test us. Therefore is it possible that maybe he is trying to show us that there are may places he wants to improve us. Is it possible he wants us to see the good in situations instead of blaming Him or satan (because we know we would never blame ourselves). Is it possible that the simple solution to handle things would be to simply read and study the teachings and examples He has set forth? Is it possible...He is right again...as always!

I right this blog today because of all the things that are going on around us. Hurricanes, crime, families separating, the slowing of the economy. I listen to our presidential nominee's, I listen to the people on television, and I read the latest headlines and NO ONE ever takes responsibility to ask how can we help. They simply blame someone else and somehow keep the spotlight on themselves by doing this. Lets change this view, lets change how we handle things, lets start a new fad of taking responsibility, find the good in situations, and search for ways to improve our ourselves and each other.