How Can We Have Success Against Temptation

temptation

Oscar Wilde famously wrote, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it…I can resist everything except temptation.”

Temptation is a battle everyone faces.  Sometimes, it sneaks up on us and we give in before we even realize the temptation is there.  Other times, we wrestle with the temptation, doing our best to overcome.  Many times, we are successful, but more times than not we fail.

Today, I want to offer some insights that hopefully will help us all find more success against temptation.

What Is Temptation?

James 1:12-15 gives us some of the clearest Biblical teaching on temptation.  James draws an important distinction for us between the testing of our faith and the temptation to sin.  Interestingly, in the original Greek, both “temptation” and “trial” come from the same word.  The difference is seen in the outcome of a particular circumstance.

If an adversity builds my faith, trust, and reliance on God, then I can consider it a trial.  But should that same adversity cause me to disobey God in some way, it then becomes a temptation. How I choose to respond determines whether adversity is a temptation or a test.

Where Does Temptation Come From?

In distinguishing between trials and temptation, James also helps us identify temptation by its source.  God is not tempted by evil and He does not tempt anyone to give in to any form of evil thought or action.

Temptation, however, is an inside job.  James shows us that it comes when we are “lured and enticed” by our own desire.  It uses our own fleshly desire against us to draw us out from a more desirable state of obedience.

We tend to blame our circumstances for our sin. James shows us that we are the ones to blame. Temptation comes when we allow ourselves to be duped into desiring something other than God’s provision.

How Does Temptation Affect Us?

We can see another distinction between trials and temptation in the outcomes of each.  In verses 2-8, James shows us that trials strengthen our faith and draw us closer to the Lord.  When God allows adversity in our lives, He hopes to draw us closer to Himself.

In verse 15, James shows the dangerous downward spiral into which temptation throws us.  Sin is the love child when our fleshly desire gives in to temptation.  When sin grows up, it leads to death.

There is a sense in which all death here on earth is the consequence of sin’s presence.  The original sin in the Garden of Eden introduced death to God’s perfect creation, just as He warned it would.

But our present sin also leads to death on several levels.  Because of our sin, Jesus died.  When we harbor unconfessed sin, our fellowship with God is temporarily offline.  Sin causes the death of relationships, health, and a myriad of other consequences.  Temptation makes sin look very attractive in its immediate gratification.  But it fails to show us the long term ill-effects.

What Can I Do to Overcome Temptation?

Nothing.  You are powerless.

I am glad the article doesn’t end with the previous two sentences.  You see while we are powerless on our own to overcome temptation, our almighty Redeemer has already conquered for us.  The catch is that we must choose to appropriate His victory on the cross rather than give in to our desire.

In a previous blog, I offered some practical steps we can take when we find ourselves facing a battle with temptation.  I would love it if you clicked here and read it.  I think it will help.

In a way, Oscar Wilde was right.  We only get rid of temptation by letting it have its way.  Unfortunately, it’s never satisfied.  It will be back again; begging for even more.  As we grow strong in our faith, we recognize it sooner and turn to the One who is our rescue.

Further Reading:

No Shortcut No Hack for Spiritual Growth

The Battle for Your Mind

The struggle is real, indeed! As believers, we have a very real enemy and he doesn’t play nice. Over the past two-weeks, I have encountered intense spiritual warfare raging in my mind and heart, and believe me, this was not my first rodeo with the devil.

One of the biggest mistakes believers make is to at best minimize the devil’s influence and at worst to disbelieve in him or his work to distract, demoralize, and derail your joy and service for God. I am saddened that there are people who do not believe in God, and I pray that their eyes would be opened to the truth, but the saddest of all to me is the one who does not believe in the existence of the devil.

The devil’s main arena is our minds. Therefore, He likes to mess up our thinking and confuse us with his lies. Deception is the name of his game. At the very first encounter a human being had with the devil, he tried to confuse her thinking and understanding of God’s truth. Genesis 3:1-7 recounts the very first sin committed, and the bait the devil dangled in front of Eve was in the question of verse 2, “Did God really say…?” (emphasis added)

The devil is not very entrepreneurial. He has been creating confusion and doubt in the minds of the creatures about the Creator’s explicit truth forever. God’s Word is VITAL (I cannot overstate this notion) to our spiritual effectiveness. The Word is both an offensive weapon, the sword of the Lord in Ephesians 6:17, and a defensive tool, the word hidden that we might not sin according to Psalm 119:9,11.

Intentional Bible Study

This is why I challenge you so often to be intentional with your Bible reading and study. If we fill our minds with God’s truth, we are more equipped to fend off the devil’s attempts to confuse and delude us. For the believer, spiritual victory begins and ends in the mind. Read, study, memorize God’s Word so you will be armed and defended against our very real enemy’s attacks.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. – John 8:32

I want to help prepare you to memorize Bible verses for when you don’t have a Bible handy. Below is  a link where you can download for free my A to Z Bible Memory sheet. The sheet provides you with 26 Bible verses each beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet. You can memorize and have them ready when the devil tries to deceive you.

A to Z Bible Memorization Plan.

Constant Practice for Spiritual Maturity

I hate doing the same things the same way all the time.  To me, “routine” is just a “rut” with added letters to disguise it.  The older I get, however, the more value I find in repetition and consistency.

Sunday, as I watched the FSU Women’s softball team on TV, one of the commentators, Michele Smith, a former Olympic pitcher, mentioned how every time she practiced she did things the exact same way.  She extolled the virtues of a “routine.”  She mentioned that she did this so that in whatever situation she might be pitching, she would always feel comfortable.  Pitching was as natural to her as walking. Athletes develop routines so that their activity becomes so natural that they do not need to give it conscious thought. When pressure is on and fans are screaming and the game is on the line, they revert to what comes naturally and excel in those clutch situations.

We must beware of two caveats, however.  First, the athlete has to engage the routine, not just go through the motions.  Their “heart” has to be “in it.”  Secondly, the practice routine must involve doing the activity the proper way or else bad habits are programmed in place of the right way.

We succeed in whatever we choose to do when we INTENTIONALLY pursue the right goal in the right manner.  The writer of the book of Hebrews spends a good deal of the 5th chapter writing about spiritual maturity.  He identifies the spiritually mature person as one who has “their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:14

What is your constant practice?  How do you “train” for spiritual success?  Bible reading and study, prayer, worship, fellowship with other believers, all when done intentionally, consistently, properly, and with our whole hearts provide a good routine that will help us act not naturally, but Godly when the pressure is on.