Hello my beautiful family and welcome back! As always, here's this post's video which is a summary of what we discuss for the rest of the post. Check it out and, please, don't forget to subscribe and support the channel if you can!
A question that I often get, and a question that I try to answer in my mind constantly, is what to do when temptation hits? For the purpose of this post we're defining temptation as those moments when we're presented with the "opportunity" to fail God, to not honor Him, to disobey Him and His law. When we come to Jesus we want to honor Him, we want to please God, we want to obey Him... but the more close we attempt to get to God, the harder it seems to get. The mind starts playing tricks and temptations seem to rise to record levels. Coincidence? Well, no.
Friend, humanity has a common enemy whose sole purpose is to get God out of the picture; to get us to stop caring and openly dishonor God. I won't even mention his name, but this individual and his colleagues will do anything to get us to dishonor and forget about God. Among the many things, they will try to discourage us from serving God, to make us feel unworthy, to make us feel too spiritually "dirty" to come to God, to make us feel like God does not listen to us or care for us, and, of course , to tempt us any time possible to get us to disobey God. This last one, temptation, is a very powerful method for deception because here's how it works:
You are tempted with things you LIKE under the rationalization that if you do it, it will bring you pleasure...
IF you give in, for the moment you might feel good and for the moment you might not even care you're failing God...
...and then it hits. After the moment passed and after you gave in, a tremendous amount of guilt and disappointment falls over your shoulder. At this point, thoughts like: "God will not forgive me", "I'm an embarrassment", "I do not deserve forgiveness", "I'm worthless"...etc. start developing in your mind...
After all those feelings, now you start wondering if it's even a good idea to come back to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. Your relationship with God takes a severe hit...
See the pattern? Temptation is not just about getting you to disobey and dishonor God, but about damaging to the point of no return your relationship with Him. Let's study together a perfect biblical example of this pattern we just stated. See, as I've always said, the Bible is a guide of life and in it God left everything that we need to learn and succeed in our spiritual life. This time, we're going to be looking at the book of Genesis and the first successful temptation to the humankind.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” - Genesis 3:1-10
AHHH!! I get so pumped talking about Bible stuff! Do you? There's so much we can say about this verses but let's quickly study these verses with our "temptation template" above. Please carefully note the pattern:
Note that the fruit was GOOD and PLEASING to the eye to Eve. Furthermore, note the promises of grandeur that the serpent gave if she would only eat from the fruit. Friend, you are not tempted with things you don't like because then it really wouldn't be a temptation, would it? Temptation for Eve started with something that she liked and she thought would bring her pleasure.
Read in between the lines and note how, for a moment, Eve didn't even care she had disobeyed God. It was so natural for her that there's no registry of hesitation on her behalf to give the fruit to her husband also. She simply ate, took the time to go find her husband, and fed him the fruit as well...
THEN, after having had the pleasure for the moment, their eyes were open and guilt fell over their shoulders. The Bible doesn't register the thoughts that ran through Adam and Eve's minds but, is not hard to guess from the context.
Finally, note how both of them hid from the presence of God. God called them and they went and hid, afraid that God might not forgive them for what they had done.
See the pattern? Someone that gives in too much to temptation is very prone to believe that it is not worth it to come to Jesus because he/she simply won't be heard or forgiven by God. All of this... a lie.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16
Perhaps one of the most quoted and famous versicles in the Bible... and for a good reason. The text shows no conditional statement about who can have eternal life. The text shows no conditional statement about for who did Jesus died. God loved the WORLD (a.k.a. EVERYONE) so Jesus gave His life so that WHOEVER (a.k.a. EVERYONE) can have access to inherit eternal life with Him. No condition... all of the humanity is covered under Jesus' sacrifice. Join me in saying AMEN!!
I'm being tempted... what should I do?
Now that we have talked about the dangers of giving into temptation, the reason for their existence, and what the Bible says about temptation... we can, using the Bible, talk about how can we defeat them the moment they appear. Let s us now answer our post title question: "What to do when temptation hits?". God's recipe for defeating temptation is EXTREMELY simple and easy to do. You see, temptations can be powerful, but nothing in the Universe is more powerful than our God. Before we share the final answer, though, there are a few things about temptation that you need to be aware of. Let's open the Bible and read:
"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death..." - James 1:13-15
So, lesson #1, God does NOT tempt us. Our enemy uses our OWN sinful and selfish desires to tempt us. Also notice, from the text we just read, how giving into the temptation gives birth to sin (which takes us down the 'pattern' we talked about in the previous section). Still, there is another more important (at least for me) lesson to be learned:
"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." - 1 Corinthians 10:13
The verse is pretty self-explanatory, right?
Ok, now for the win :)
Let me give you the recipe for defeating temptation. Ready?
"Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation.' " - Luke 22:39-40
It's that simple. Feeling tempted? Bend your knees or close your eyes wherever you may find yourself in, and pray. Ask God to help you get out of the situation you're in. The enemy can't stand the presence of Jesus. Jesus defeated Him for all of us and today, through and with Jesus, we can defeat him too. So, what should we do when temptation hits? Well:
Remember that the temptation is NOT coming from God
Remember that God will never allow you to be tempted beyond what He knows you're capable of handling
Pray and ask God to help you get out of the situation you're in.
Simple, right? Thank you God!!!!
A quick testimony - Personal Story
God never fails. This is a true story that happened to me literally 3 days ago (today is March 20, 2022).
One of my past struggles as a person when it came to obeying God, having come from a family with limited financial resources and having worked hard to get the job that I have, was the ability to freely and without regrets give away tithes. When I was a student receiving close to nothing of a salary, giving 10% of my earnings didn't bothered me as much because it was a small amount. Once I graduated and started working high-paying jobs, giving tithes, for a time, was "painful" to me. I was giving them out of an obligation-feeling as opposed to because I wanted to obey and honor God. I was simply too selfish to see that God was teaching me a lesson and that God counted on me to support His ministries. As time went by and as my relationship with God matured, tithing became as normal as paying my water bill. It is something I just do without hesitation. After all, God gave me the intelligence, health, life, opportunity to have a job, and even more than all that, He gave His life for me... what's to me to return to Him the 10% of my earnings?
For a long time tithing was not a problem and then all of a sudden, a few days ago, temptation hit and it was. You see, because of financial situations in the company I work for I had not received an end-of-year bonus for a few years, but this year things went well and I finally received my well-deserved bonus. Needless to say, it was a bit more than I'm normally used to get and 10% of that... seemed a lot. It's tax season, I had some debts that I needed to pay, I'm getting a German Shepherd puppy and need to pay for her, it all seemed to pile up on top of the 10% that I should tithe. Temptation hit. "What if I don't give tithes just this time?... I'm sure God would understand. Right? " was the thought that lingered in my own mind.
Interestingly enough, my sister had visited me the previous week and I for about a week and a half I had not taken the time I normally take to be alone with God. The root cause of my temptation became clear, I started to drift away from God, and was left open for my selfishness and own personal desires to emerge... after all, I'm human. It reminds me of the Apostle Paul when he wrote:
"For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it..." - Romans 7:19-20
It is only trough prayer and a CONSTANT relationship with God that we are able to defeat and bury our sinful nature. As we've talked before in previous videos and posts, we're creatures prone to sin and selfishness, only through Jesus and His spirit in our hearts can we leave that natural lifestyle behind. That's why Jesus said:
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me...'" - John 14:6
He also said:
"...pray continually..." - 1 Thessalonians 5:17
I stopped praying, I stopped looking for Him who can transform the character... and I left myself open for the enemy to tempt me. I had found myself rationalizing why it's a good thing that I kept the tithes and steal from God. In all that mess, I went on my knees and prayed. I was honest, I told God exactly what I was feeling and I told Him to help me get out of the mess that I was in. Friend, His response took less than 5 seconds and it, metaphorically, gave me a slap in the face. All of a sudden the thought of watching one of my own videos/posts came to my mind. Here's the thumbnail I used for it:
The video, titled: "The Danger of Seeking Riches - A MASSIVE warning"is about the young rich ruler and how this individual rejected a life with Jesus and the gift of salvation for keeping a few extra dollars in his bank account. You can read more about it here. I took the 4 minutes the video takes to watch the video and is like I traveled in time and slapped myself. Instantaneously my greed left and without waiting a second more, logged into my account, and sent my tithes away for them to be used for God's work.
Why am I sharing? Because just like me, hundreds and thousands of christians get tempted every day and just like me, many get taken over by greed and selfish thoughts. In my case, I prayed and was able to defeat my temptation, but I'll admit my outcomes have not always been as good. I have failed, many times, but I have come to Jesus' feet and I know I'm forgiven and covered by His grace. Whether you are tempted and pray and defeat your temptation, or you're tempted and fail to defeat it... come to Jesus. Never stop coming back and never stop praying. The enemy's playground is filled with half-committed christians that just go to church on Saturdays and live the rest of the week by praying only before a meal... make God, Jesus, your priority, connect, talk, share, read, study... and next time temptation comes, know that He, the Almighty King and creator of the Universe, stands behind you.
Finally and before closing, always remember te phrase: "Those that play with fire... get burned". Something is causing you to feel tempted? Stop getting close to or doing that 'something'.
Until next one my friend,
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