Who of us don’t experience temptation from day by day? Something or someone beckons us be it sinful or not. We can be on a diet and certain foods will call out to us. We can purpose a budget than all of a sudden sales that we just think we can’t pass up come about. Then here are the sinful temptations, we look at and think about people we desire to be with. We may already be married, in a relationship, lusting after another instead of asking that person out on a date to see if the opposite sex individual is interested, that is if you are unattached and he/she is unattached.
Do you realize that none of us can be tempted by anything or by anyone that we are not familiar with? What am I writing? If you are familiar with gluttony and you are trying yourself to curb or stop this habit, that’s good. And you maybe successful however, gluttony is not relevant to just over eating. Glutton – over indulgence of anything. For example, there was a time when I was employed in the secular world that I was a work-a-holic. This was my drug of choice.
When I retired it was difficult and though I know I heard clearly that I was no longer to work in secular employment again, the temptation to get out there and work was just too great. Needless to say JESUS won, HE got my attention and I have never been happier than doing what I’m doing for HIM. Some of us can have success working on ourselves and not looking back and be tempted by the temptation of a thing that we once involved ourselves in and I give you a standing ovation. Then there is us folk, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the gripping temptations that come after us.
We must pray that we are not led into temptations for that day but even if we are, we have an assurance that JESUS will deliver us because our flesh is weak. I’m writing to remind all of us that if we don’t cover ourselves from temptation that we will find ourselves in circumstances and then looking back feeling miserable asking ourselves; how did this happen? It’s easy to be overtaken by temptation, maybe not the first time and maybe not the second time. But the more temptation comes by to visit the pressure becomes greater and as we begin to converse with whom we think is ourselves, when in essence it’s the enemy. We will be overtaken, but remember that only those temptations that over take us are the ones that we are familiar with. It’s not the one that we don’t know anything about. When I was a virgin, sex was never an issue for me, I never used drugs so drugs is not an issue for me, and alcohol is not an issue for me nor is parties. But sin is an issue for me, I’m tempted daily to sin.
So I trust JESUS to deliver me daily out of temptation because I belong to HIM and I’ve been promised this just as you have. We are blessed when we are able to endure temptations. We can do this my beloved family in CHRIST JESUS. We can’t do this in and of ourselves but we can do this in CHRIST JESUS.
Matthew 6:13, 26:41; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Peter 2:9 & James 2:9