Temptation

Last night at The Well, we started a new series called, “I am…because He did.”  One of the first things we talked about hit me kind of hard. The slide read, “Many struggle to fully trust God because we don’t think He really understands what we’re going through.” As much as I don’t want to say it, this statement rings true in my life. Trust is something that I struggle with and is something that in my walk with God, I have gotten better at. I am slowly growing to trust God and His plans for me. Although I may not always understand why things have to be the way they are, I know that it will only make me stronger as a person and in my relationship with Him.  We serve a god who is close and personal, He sent His only son to live as we do. And as a human, Jesus encountered the same things that we do. This includes temptation, our topic of the night.  Luke 4:1-2 “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”(NIV)

There are three truths about temptation; the first is that it is inevitable.  Temptation always knows where you are, there is no hiding from it. In terms of temptation and sin it is remember that sin is not in the attraction, but in the action.

The second truth about temptation is that it grows. All sin starts as an idea. When the idea is left alone and not dealt with, it grows from your head to your heart. That is when the idea becomes sin.  You must guard your heart.

The final truth about temptation is that it doesn’t have to win. When there is temptation, get away. In Genesis 39:10 we read, “And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.”(NIV) Joseph removed himself from the temptation of Potiphar’s wife. This is the example we should follow, do not be near the thing that tempts you for you cannot be near and not end up in it. After getting away, get aligned. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 reads, “or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NIV) There’s no anointing without affliction. No throne without a thorn. Pain forces us to depend on God instead of ourselves.

Temptation is inevitable, but being defeated is optional. God has not abandoned you and it is in your weakness that He makes you strong.