Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 3:3 

“But the Lord is faithful, who will establish and guard you from the evil one.” 

When I was elementary school I played in a soccer in a small town. I usually played the position called striker, my job was to go and try to score and it is a fun exciting position. However, I remember wanting to play goalie, or be the goalkeeper. Then I finally got the chance, and it was quite boring it to be honest. My job was to keep the ball from going in the net. I was the last line of defense and truthfully I wasn’t a good last line of defense. However as Christians we have someone that protects us from the evil one. It is God Himself. He stands before us as an undefeated God who will never lose. He is faithful in protecting us. He protects us by establishing us. Much like a building that has a strong foundation, God faithfully builds us up by the work of His Holy Spirit as we read His Word, seek Him in prayer, He establishes us and builds us upon the foundation which is Jesus. He builds us up and then He guards us from the evil one. This is great and awesome news, but it should cause us to ask a legitimate question. If God is protecting us from the evil one how do we still get tempted? 

I believe that the answer to this question is two fold. First of all, many of us struggle with temptation because we do not allow God to establish us on the foundation of Christ crucified. We don’t give him the chance to build us up because we are not consistently in His Word and seeking Him on our knees. As a result of this we are like the man who built his house on the sand. When the storm comes, because of our unstable house, it collapses and there is nothing to protect. The other reason we face temptation even if we are allowing God to build us up is because of our flesh. Many of the temptations we face come from the inside, not the outside. We tempt ourself through our fallen nature. It’s in the process of being transformed, but that process is not yet complete. As a result our flesh fails us, and it desires wickedness, and as a result we do what we desire. See it isn’t that God fails as our protector, its that oftentimes we reject his protection because we desire sin. As a result of this, we need to go to God each day and say Lord help me submit to your Will and help me accept and love your protecting presence in my life. Please Lord, build me up on the foundation of Christ crucified, and protect me from myself and from the evil one.