Spiritual Wimps
One of the things that makes us cave in to temptation so early is that we often have the sense that we are going to fail anyway, so why even put up a struggle? But are we so sure of this? Didn’t the problem of last year or last month strike us with the same despair? And yet with God it was possible. Spiritual growth seems so impossible in the moment, and so easy in retrospect. We need to remember how unlikely it seemed we would ever: profess Christ, pray in public, witness, and all of the other steps along the way, as we face the temptation to give up now. After all, this too will pass. We can, and will make it by the grace of God. And God has given us His word…
1 Cor 10:13 (TEB) Every temptation that has come your way is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your power to resist; at the time you are tempted he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.
On Guard
Gal 6:1 (Phi) Even if a man is detected in some sin, my brothers, the spiritual ones among you should quietly set him back on the right path, not with any feeling of superiority but being yourselves on guard against temptation.
Prov 16:18 (NIV) Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Don’t Place Yourselves In Dangerous Territory Unless God Is With You!
1 Cor 7:5 (Phi) [To married] Do not cheat each other of normal sexual intercourse… or you will expose yourselves to the obvious temptation of Satan.
Eph 4:26b-27 (NIV) Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
1 Tim 6:9 (NIV) People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
You Are Not Alone
1 Pet 5:8-10 (Phi) Be self-controlled and vigilant always, for your enemy the devil is always about, prowling like a lion roaring for its prey. Resist him, standing firm in your faith, remembering that the strain is the same for all your fellow-Christians in other parts of the world. And after you have born these sufferings a very little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to share his eternal splendor through Christ, will himself make you whole and secure and strong.
Attacks Of Satan
Dan 6:16-17 (NIV) So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed.
Oswald Chambers: “We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings round about us. Never! God engineers circumstances and whatever they may be like we have to see that we face them while abiding continually with Him… They are… temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. The honor of Jesus Christ is at stake in your bodily life.”
Dan 6:19-22 (NIV) At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” Daniel answered, “…My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight…”
Dan 6:23-24 (NIV) The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
Ps 23:5 (NIV) You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…
The Secret Weapon
How would a cadaver respond to this temptation? “Reckon yourself dead…” to every instinct, impulse, and desire of the flesh. This is the violence of the war of the kingdom of God (Mat 11:12). This is the cross we bear that leads to victory. This is “the way of the Lord”.
Rom 6:11-13 (Wey) … You must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings; and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your various faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.
Luke 9:23 (NIV) Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
2 Cor 4:10 (NIV) We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
Rom 8:13 (NAS) … If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, then you will live.
Can’t Touch This…
1 Jn 5:18 (Phi) We know that the true child of God does not sin, he is in the charge of God’s own Son and the evil one cannot touch him.
Gal 5:16-17 (Jer) Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is totally against such a thing…
James 4:7 (NIV) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
The Day Is Coming
Eph 6:10,13 (Phi) In conclusion be strong—not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of his boundless strength. Put on God’s complete armor so that you can successfully resist all the devil’s craftiness… that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when you have fought to a standstill you may still stand your ground.
2 Tim 4:18 (NIV) The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack…
Mat 6:13 (NIV) “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
When Trouble Comes, What Kind Is It?
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1 Cor 10:13 (NIV) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 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 stand up under it.
Church here is a really cool acronym to remember. The enemy when you experience one of the following!
H- Hunger
A- anger
L- loneliness
T- tired
Halt! When you expierence one of the above you are subject to the temptation!
