Overcoming Temptationਨਮੂਨਾ

OVERCOMING TEMPTATION

Temptation is something that we all deal with. We would all like the secret to never being tempted again. However, there isn’t one. The Bible doesn’t promise a way to avoid all temptation, but it does give instructions on how to overcome every temptation. It tells us we don’t need to be unaware of Satan’s schemes.

2 Corinthians 2:11 (NIV) - in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

In this plan, we are going to look at Satan’s tactics and how to defeat them.

Satan tells the lie that if we were just more spiritual, we wouldn’t be tempted. Sadly, we never outgrow being tempted. Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, was still tempted.

Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) - For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

This verse holds a powerful key for freedom that is easy to miss. If Jesus was tempted and yet without sin, then being tempted isn’t a sin. Having a wrong desire isn’t a sin. Desire brings us to a choice: we can choose to give way to our fleshly desires (and sin) or lay them down in worship before God.

Romans 12:1 (ESV) - I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

When we choose to lay down our own desires to honor God, it's an act of worship as we place Him first in our lives.

This means there will always be things to lay down at God’s feet. It also means that my desires or temptations don’t define me. The Bible promises that temptation will come, and instructs me to take captive my thoughts and put to death my wrong and earthly desires.

Colossians 3:5 (ESV) - Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The Bible warns us that one of Satan’s tactics is that he is the accuser (Revelation 12:10). He tries to get us to embrace an identity from our temptations and desires. Whether the battle is anxiety, depression, lust, lying, cheating, same-sex attraction, or any number of others, Satan tries to get us to live a life identified and rooted in those desires or struggles. But we don’t have to remain the same. God’s word tells us to take these thoughts captive and make them obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) - We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

We can break his hold on us and be set free. Check out the way Paul ends a list of sins dealt with in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV) - And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

God’s desire for us is freedom. He wants us to be a new creation in Christ Jesus, with an identity rooted in Him and what He says about us. We can take the thoughts and desires from our flesh and the devil, and take them captive to obey Christ.

Today, we take thoughts captive; our desires don’t define us. Our desires don’t justify actions. Laying our desires down before the Lord is a way we can worship Him.