Monday November 14, 2016

 

Children are tempted to disobey their parents, while men might be tempted to look at the pretty girl at the office, and women can be tempted to misspend money. I know this sounds like stereotyping, however, my point is to simply say that everyone of us is susceptible to temptation. Temptations have been around since the Garden of Eden. Immediately following the creation of man, the serpent tempted Eve. If you recall the event, the serpent’s temptation was designed to deceive Eve. Hidden within his temptation was a lie. If we were to examine our own temptations, we would find that each one of them is fueled by a hidden lie.

 

God spoke to Eve and told her that if she were to eat from a specific tree she would die. Then, along came the serpent and told her: “You will not certainly die, God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Now, the latter part of this statement was true, her eyes were opened and she did in fact learn what good and evil were. However, the initial part of his statement was a lie. The result of eating the fruit was that death entered for the first time into the human race and since then people have been dying.

 

James 1:13-15 NIV

 

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.

 

Examine the areas in your life where you are susceptible to temptations.

If you were to examine the areas in your life in which you are susceptible to temptation, you will discover than in each one of them there is a hidden lie. The lie being, if you give in to the temptation, your life will be better. However, we know that giving in to temptation will lead to sin and when sin is fully grown, it will lead to death just as it did with Eve.

 

There are two ways to get rid of temptations. First, you can give in and it will no longer be a temptation. On the other hand, you can allow God to transform your life by renewing your mind. Instead of looking at temptation as something that will improve your life, remove the old way of thinking and replace it with a new way of thinking, knowing that temptation always leads to sin and sin fully grown leads to death.