Temptation

August 1

Ezra 9-10

Psalm 87

Proverbs 19:15-16

I Corinthians 10

Temptation

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.  No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.  And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.   But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 

I Corinthians 10:12-13 NIV

As Christians we must recognize that temptations are a very real and persistent threat in the life of the believer.  The most dangerous thing a Christian can ever do is to believe that they are somehow immune to temptation.  As a matter of fact, the more faithful we are in our service to the Lord and the more we are allowing Him to use us, the more likely we are to get Satan’s attention.  If we are not a threat to Satan, he has us where he wants us and will probably leave us alone.  But if he sees us being effective in ministry, telling others about Jesus and having an impact on the world around us, he decides that he needs to stop us and he draws a huge target on our backs.  Unfortunately, he knows us very well and he knows what to use to tempt us.  Overestimating our own spiritual ability and underestimating our need for God’s grace and deliverance will often result in moral failure and humiliation. 

Jesus Himself taught us to pray for strength against temptation.  “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”  Matthew 6:13 (ESV) We are not able to resist temptation by our own power. Most of us know by experience that our willpower is not as strong as we might like to believe it is.  We may do fine for a while, but there comes a point when it just gets hard to will more willpower.  Thankfully, we do not have to do it on our own.  We do not have to come up with some inner power to overcome temptation.  The Holy Spirit who is living inside of us does it for us.  We don’t even have to come halfway and then He meets us there to help us.  He does it all.  He will deliver us from evil.  He will provide the way out.  But we have to take it.  We have to let Him deliver us.  Like a drowning person who often fights the person who is trying to rescue them, we often resist the deliverance and reject His help.  “Deliver us” suggests desperation and powerlessness, not self-sufficiency.  It is only by recognizing our own weaknesses and our need for His deliverance that we can overcome the temptations of the world, the desires of our sinful nature and Satan’s evil schemes.  This is a constant struggle.  We cannot become complacent.  Jesus included this in His model prayer because He knows that it isn’t something we pull out on an as needed basis.  It has to be a part of our daily prayer life. Acknowledging our propensity to sin and asking for His deliverance from temptation is a daily need.  If we allow this to become a habit in our lives, we are more likely to recognize His methods of deliverance and take His way out.