Oh so tempting...
HEY EVERYONE! I’d really like to share what God has been teaching me the past few weeks… So much has been happening (i.e preparing for Kenya, Kids camp all last week..), and I want to get to share the amazing lessons God has been teaching me. So I’ll start with this. Temptation. A lot of verses about temptation have been coming up in my life. An example being in Mark 14:38 when Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray. Jesus told Peter to pray that he would not enter into temptation. This was after Jesus already told him that before the rooster crows twice, he will deny Him 3 times (Mark 14:30). Of course Peter fell asleep instead of staying diligent in prayer, and then later denied Him 3 times, as Jesus said he would. Peter had even said, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you” (Mark 14:31). What a perfect example of what Paul talks about in Romans 7:18-20… (For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.) He didn’t want to deny Jesus, in fact he said he would rather DIE then do so! But how weak is our flesh... The enemy knows our weaknesses. He enticed Peter with a servant girl and he provoked fear in him with people of authority (Mark 14:66-72). The enemy knows and he will get us to deny our faith at any cost.
Which leads me to another verse that was being implanted in my heart. My mom told me about it after she had a class at church and then the following morning my phone vibrated and buzzed with the very same verse (my Bible app buzzes a “verse of the day” every morning at 6:15am!) as I was doing my daily devotional. It’s crazy how God works.
The verse is 1 Peter 5:8-9…
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same
kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
Amazing! Another verse that warned me about the devil's plan to lead me into temptation. What a perfect time for me to remember Jesus’ words in Mark 16... "pray NOT to be led into temptation", to be able to withstand it through the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.
There were also many other verses and articled I saw pointing me to the topic of temptation… I knew I needed to be on guard. I even mentioned it to my mom cause I couldn’t tell if it was all just in my head this “temptation stuff”. Nevertheless, in one very day, I had multiple opportunities to deny Jesus, disobey His commands, and fall into numerous sins. I won’t go into details, but it was very clearly specific weaknesses of mine I was being tempted with. Over the past year I’ve learnt a lot about myself and the sins I struggle with, and this was very clearly an attack on those things. What a responsibility believers have to be PREPARED for these times!
A good verse to have written on our hearts is 1 Corinthians 10:13…
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
Verses likes these are key… I woke up the following morning and just meditated on this verse. It helps me and brings me so much comfort knowing that I'm not alone in my weakness of temptation. God knew we would struggle with this so He has equipped us with verses like these that show us the way to endure it.
Something else to withstand any sort of temptation is accountability… How repetitive it is to hear the importance of having “accountability partners”... But when you choose to have one it’s saying you truly believe in the power of interceding prayer because God listens to His children…All it is, is a text or phone call to ask for a prayer from a loved one. I had even opened a text message to my best friend to ask for payer, and the enemy got in my head, telling me not to bother her, that she’s busy with her own life and her own problems… So I did what he wanted me to do, shut the text message and continue on my own. “Woe to him who is alone when he stumbles…” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). What a clear warning! We need each other in this battle for our hearts. It's very clear we are incapable on our own... So if you don't have a best friend to go to for prayer in times like these, start praying for one now, God will certainly hear you!
First and foremost though, we need the Lord. We need to know our flesh and its greatest desires. We need to be on guard. We need to pray against entering into temptation.
God is good though and even through constant stumbling and failure, He still loves us unconditionally. He still chooses us even knowing our sinful, weak selves. One of His promises is that He will help us through hard-times, He will never leave us (Isaiah 43:1-5), and nothing is worth more than knowing that.
