[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0412":3},"APRIL 12\r\nAnd Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and  was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil (Luke 4:1, 2).\r\nJesus was full of the Holy Ghost and yet He was tempted. Temptation often comes upon a man with its strongest power when he is nearest   to God. As someone has said, \"The devil aims high.\" He got one\r\napostle to say he did not even know Christ\r\nVery few men have such conflicts with the devil as Martin Luther\r\nhad. Why? Because Martin Luther was going to shake the very kingdom of hell. Oh, what conflicts John Bunyan had!\r\nIf a man has much of the Spirit of God, he will have great\r\nconflicts with the tempter. God permits temptation because it does\r\nfor us what the storms do for the oaks-it roots us; and what the fire does for the paintings on the porcelain-it makes them\r\npermanent.\r\nYou never know that you have a grip on Christ, or that He has a grip on you, as well as when the devil is using all his force to\r\nattract you from Him; then you feel the pull of Christ's right hand. --Selected\r\nExtraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of\r\nextraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary\r\ngraces. God hath many sharp-cutting instruments, and rough files for the polishing of His jewels; and those He especially loves, and means to make the most resplendent, He hath oftenest His tools   upon.\r\n--Archbishop Leighton.\r\nI bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the\r\nhammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop.\r\nI sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except\r\nthrough the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most --C.H. Spurgeon.",1783499792051]