How Do We Overcome Temptations?
Hello Chosen, welcome back! If you’re new, it’s good to have
you J
Overcoming temptations is a very interesting topic, if I do
say so myself. Allow me to just jog your thoughts a bit. Do you think
non-Christians are not tempted? Do you think that new believers have finally
escaped and will no longer be tempted? Or mature Christians have passed that
stage and will not face temptation? Let’s see if we can answer those questions
while we explore the main question that we are trying to answer, How Do We Overcome Temptations?
Let us first try to understand what Temptation is before we get to how to overcome it. Bishop Robert
Ellis describes temptation as an enticement to do evil or a desire to abstain
from doing good. Let me guess, you didn’t expect that second part, did you?
Well James 4:17 says “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is a sin.” http://bit.ly/Jam4-17. For that
reason, we can say in essence that temptation is a pull towards evil or a pull
from doing good.
Naturally, we may start to wonder where does temptation come from. It’s important that you know this
and from today onwards, never say otherwise. Satan is the tempter; temptation
comes from him and him only. Matthew 4:
1-11 speaks about the devil tempting Jesus after Jesus had fasted for a
period of forty days and forty nights. In this passage, the devil tempted him
to; command that stones be made bread, cast himself down off the pinnacle of a
temple, fall down and worship him. But Jesus did not yield to the temptation;
he used the Word of God and rebuked the devil to get over it. God does not
tempt, he tries. James 1:13 says “Let
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man:” Friends, please challenge anything
that suggests otherwise with the many scriptures, especially for translation.
You may find other scriptures of the Bible that refer to Satan as the tempter
from The
Journal of Bible Accuracy http://bit.ly/2vEfHTZ.
(Image from profitableadvisor.com)
So now we get to the question of who is tempted? And this is why I find this topic really
interesting, because we all are tempted. Every, single human-being faces
temptation. As a matter of fact, it’s unavoidable; we must face it. And there
is no particular stage in our lives that we do not encounter temptation. Man
has been tempted from the beginning of time since he was created. From Eve in the garden of
Eden, Samson with Delilah, Lot with Sodom, Nebuchadnezzar with his pride and so
many others including you and I. Hold on
now, we all have legitimate needs BUT we must take care not to satisfy these
legitimate needs in an illegitimate way. It says in James 1:14, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own
lust, and enticed.”
We have now been introduced to the process of temptation. Before we continue, please recognize
that the medium of temptation is our sinful nature. And because we are all born
in sin, temptation is inevitable. The process of temptation is as follows:
1.
Desire – Happens when “Drawn away by his own desires…”
2.
Enticement – After desire; “Drawn away…and enticed.”
3.
Deception – Defined as a false belief in the
face of the evidence to the contrary
4.
Disobedience – Happens when “desire has conceived; it gives birth to sin.”
5.
Consequence – Then “sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.”
(Image from medicalxpress.com)
Chosen, if you’re like me, you’re thinking that this is all
too scary. To think that the little thing that popped up in your mind, if left
uncontrolled, can lead to death? Yes, it is so but it doesn’t have to get to
that. Bear with me friends, I know you can hardly wait to get to the solution
to this issue but there are actually some benefits
of temptation and I want to share them with you.
·
It’s an Instrument of Perfection – Temptation does
not come from God but he allows it to be used to perfect us.
·
It’s a Test for Promotion – This is how we
should view temptation and not as a burden.
·
Helps to Make Us Patient
Please read the following reference texts; James 1:2-4 http://bit.ly/James1-2, Psalm 66:10 http://bit.ly/Ps66-10, 1 Peter 5:10 http://bit.ly/1Pet5--10.
Finally, now that the background is covered, we can explore
how do we actually overcome temptation.
Yes, we can overcome. 1 Corinthians 10:13
says “There hath no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”.
i.
Since we are clear that temptation is born of
our desire, the best approach is for us to kill the seed of desire as it is
planted. In Jamaica we commonly say, ‘nip it in the bud’. So, we don’t actually
have to go through the entire process of temptation, thankfully.
ii.
Once we have those desires, we should immediately
focus on the consequence. The short term pleasure definitely won’t be worth the
consequence. – “For the wages of sin is
death…” Romans 6:23.
iii.
Arm yourself with the Word of God, walk in the Spirit
and pray continuously. “(For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
strong holds;)”. 2 Corinthians 10:4. Read http://bit.ly/Ps119-11.
iv.
Use one of three responses;
Chosen, we now understand what temptation is, where it comes
from, the process and how to overcome it. Operate in this knowledge that you
have. You can and will overcome temptation, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
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Sound words and good read
ReplyDeleteGod bless you. Please share, icon above :)
DeleteThis is real thought provoking. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThank you for the teachings temptation is one of my biggest struggle as a child
ReplyDeleteGod bless you. With Jesus you shall overcome!
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