Overcoming Temptationਨਮੂਨਾ

THE SEED TRAP

In our lives, it's easy to get drawn into planting things we don’t actually want to grow. We can get drawn into planting junk food in our body and then be frustrated that it grows into being unhealthy. The seeds, or baby things, are cute or desirable, but they can produce things we don’t want.

We often think of sin as a behavior, but when the Bible talks about sin, it teaches that it starts as an idea or desire.

James 1:15 (ESV) Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

The ideas and desires that we meditate on fill our hearts and minds, and they grow until they become an action. Just as a fruit tree exists long before it produces a harvest of fruit, so sin starts long before the action.

Many times in our lives, we try to grow the tree of sin and stop it from producing fruit. When we see the sin as the final action, but ignore the tree producing it, we can be shocked at how hard it is to stop the fruit from growing on the branches.

Just as a birth comes after conceiving and growing the baby, so the Bible says that our actions were an idea that was conceived, meditated on, and grew into a desire, until it became an action.

Let me share my paraphrase of Psalms 7:14: He who became intimate with sin, and is nurturing, feeding, and dwelling on evil, soon will give birth to disillusionment.

Many times, we want to be intimate with temptation and not give birth to sin. But intimacy leads to pregnancy, which leads to birth.

What are we getting intimate with? Our Bible? Our TV? Our phone, our culture, our success, our money, or social media? What we dwell on will grow in our hearts and give birth to actions in our lives.

This verse shows us that those who get close to sin feed and grow a lie. The devil paints a picture like a salesman. People press forward, looking forward to its expected end, but when they get there, they don’t find the happiness and fulfillment they expected, but disappointment and emptiness. It is the end of the illusion; it is disillusionment.

Are we flirting with sin? The more you flirt, the better it looks, but the reality never changes. It is still sin; it still produces sin and death in your life. Do not go near; flirting with sin is the process of swallowing the hook.

In Luke 4:7, during Jesus' temptation, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in an instant. He tried to plant a seed. Satan was showing Jesus a shortcut, promising the world without the cross. But Jesus refused to let the seed take root.

We, too, are told to take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). We need to be on guard for the seeds that we let through to our heart, because seeds grow. Giant trees come from small seeds.