Being a sinner makes me no more an expert on temptation than being an American makes me an expert on the history of America. What God has taught me has come over years of overcoming temptation and failing in temptation. What was has struck me is how simple and complex temptation is. The complexity of my individual personality, my personal desires, my personal circumstances, and how Satan uses those to lead me toward sin. The simplicity is in that the goal of Satan is the same in all temptation for all Christ followers. Satan simply wants us to assign a higher value to something, anything else than Christ.
God’s word is clear on a few things, temptation is not sin (James 1:15James 1:15
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
15 Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.
WP-Bible plugin), temptation will always be with us (James 1:13James 1:13
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
13 Don't blame God when you are tempted! God cannot be tempted by evil, and he doesn't use evil to tempt others.
WP-Bible plugin), and when we are tempted there will be a way out from sinning (1 Corinthians 10:131 Corinthians 10:13
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
13 You are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you be tempted too much, and he will show you how to escape from your temptations.
WP-Bible plugin). As believers and followers we must accept that we will be tempted and that we must resist the temptation. We must be honest and realistic and know that we will experience failure occasionally in this resistance. God has given us a great many resources to navigate this fallen world the most of which is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, but also include His scriptures. Spiritual discipline is the way out of temptation that God has promised.
Discipline usually carries the connotation of punishment, but discipline is the natural precondition for discipleship and discipleship is the call of Christ through salvation. Since sin is valuing something else more than Christ it is vital to resist and conquer temptations to maintain a discipleship relationship with Christ. We must learn and practice spiritual disciplines for resisting temptations.
Scripture urges us to flee from sin as a means of resisting temptation as we know Joseph did when being seduced by Potiphar’s wife. This is not possible when presented with temptations of the mind or motivation. Physically running from the temptation of pride or lust is absurd. God gave us the scripture which He calls “shoes for your feet” Ephesians 6:15Ephesians 6:15
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
15 . Your desire to tell the good news about peace should be like shoes on your feet.
WP-Bible plugin. Reading, knowledge, memory of scripture is the discipline that allows us to take these tempting thoughts captive (2 Cor 10:52 Cor 10:5
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
5 and every bit of pride that keeps anyone from knowing God. We capture people's thoughts and make them obey Christ.
WP-Bible plugin) and discharge them from our minds. It is the word of God that allows us to resist temptation by outrunning sin.
Prayer against temptation was taught by Jesus Christ himself. It was so important that He taught it in what we commonly call the Lord’s Prayer. The easiest and most powerful way to resist temptation is to avoid it. When we apply the discipline of prayer to avoid temptation we are aware that temptation it is not more powerful than the strength given to us by Christ to resist it. We also know that know that God allowed that specific temptation in our life so that He may be glorified through us depending on Him to resist sin.
It is the discipline of worship and praise that allow us to refocus on our heavenly treasure. Temptation is weak compared to the power of worship. When we turn our complete focus on Christ we are unmistakably telling Him that He is more valuable to us than anything this world can offer.
0 Comments.