under siege

[Jeremy E Walker]

I would guess you are getting too personal for the OP's tastes.

With that said, I don't understand the point of the thread, if he was not willing to discuss some details, unless the sole purpose was for him to state he overcame some type of temptation and leave it at that.

My point was that when we are hard-pressed and tried, when everything around us appears to be dark and foreboding, when you have every excuse to abandon hope and give up it is in those moments that the choices we make reflect what we really want, who we really are....

Even those who are not Christians, by their choices show, what it is that they truly desire, what they truly live for, what they truly value.

If I truly desire something, if I truly value something, then that is what I choose.

C.S. Lewis wrote this:

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? The same with people. For years I would have said that I had perfect confidence in B.R. Then came the moment when I had to decide whether I would or would not trust him with a really important secret. That threw quite a new light on what I called my ‘confidence’ in him. I discovered that there was no such thing. Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.

C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (London: Faber and Faber, 1961), 20-21.




When I said I was under siege, I meant to say that my belief and my faith was being tested in a very real way. To me it was a matter of life and death. In that moment, even though my flesh was telling me that my choices did not really matter so much, my spirit was telling me that it was a matter of life and death and through much anguish, pain, and suffering, I finally resovled to choose to obey the spirit.

After I had resolved, it was then that I won the victory, but not a moment before.

Without the trial, without the furnace of affliction, without the hard pressing, I would be as a soft lump of clay. But we know that those things of greatest value, pearls, diamonds and the like, are not formed except but by pain and extreme pressure and thus as gold is refined in a fire so doth trial test the upright man.

Proverbs 27:21 As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man …
Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Psalm 66:10 For you, O God, have proved us: you have tried us, as silver is tried.
Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you …
Jeremiah 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every …
Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine …
Malachi 3:2,3 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when …
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold …

 

[bhsmte]

My point was that when we are hard-pressed and tried, when everything around us appears to be dark and foreboding, when you have every excuse to abandon hope and give up it is in those moments that the choices we make reflect what we really want, who we really are....

Even those who are not Christians, by their choices show, what it is that they truly desire, what they truly live for, what they truly value.

If I truly desire something, if I truly value something, then that is what I choose.

C.S. Lewis wrote this:

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? The same with people. For years I would have said that I had perfect confidence in B.R. Then came the moment when I had to decide whether I would or would not trust him with a really important secret. That threw quite a new light on what I called my ‘confidence’ in him. I discovered that there was no such thing. Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.

C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (London: Faber and Faber, 1961), 20-21.




When I said I was under siege, I meant to say that my belief and my faith was being tested in a very real way. To me it was a matter of life and death. In that moment, even though my flesh was telling me that my choices did not really matter so much, my spirit was telling me that it was a matter of life and death and through much anguish, pain, and suffering, I finally resovled to choose to obey the spirit.

After I had resolved, it was then that I won the victory, but not a moment before.

Without the trial, without the furnace of affliction, without the hard pressing, I would be as a soft lump of clay. But we know that those things of greatest value, pearls, diamonds and the like, are not formed except but by pain and extreme pressure and thus as gold is refined in a fire so doth trial test the upright man.

I agree with you on one point.

When we are under duress, is when one's true core character is revealed.

Duress, has a way of stripping away the fluff and getting to the real thing.

 

[BL2KTN]

My point was that when we are hard-pressed and tried, when everything around us appears to be dark and foreboding, when you have every excuse to abandon hope and give up it is in those moments that the choices we make reflect what we really want, who we really are....

Even those who are not Christians, by their choices show, what it is that they truly desire, what they truly live for, what they truly value.

If I truly desire something, if I truly value something, then that is what I choose.

So what were you being tempted with Jeremy, so bad that you were hard-pressed and tried, when everything around you appeared to be dark and foreboding, when you had every excuse to abandon hope and give up?

When I said I was under siege, I meant to say that my belief and my faith was being tested in a very real way. To me it was a matter of life and death. In that moment, even though my flesh was telling me that my choices did not really matter so much, my spirit was telling me that it was a matter of life and death and through much anguish, pain, and suffering, I finally resovled to choose to obey the spirit.

After I had resolved, it was then that I won the victory, but not a moment before.

Without the trial, without the furnace of affliction, without the hard pressing, I would be as a soft lump of clay. But we know that those things of greatest value, pearls, diamonds and the like, are not formed except but by pain and extreme pressure and thus as gold is refined in a fire so doth trial test the upright man.

But you're not going to tell us what it was that had you "under siege".

 

[Jeremy E Walker]

I agree with you on one point.

When we are under duress, is when one's true core character is revealed.

Duress, has a way of stripping away the fluff and getting to the real thing.

"In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest.
When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress."

Thomas a Kempis in the Imitation of Christ.

 

[BL2KTN]

Alright, keep it your self, Jeremy. As for me, I'm going to walk right by a cupcake in a moment... I dare say I face a sieging, the likes of which I have ne'er known.