WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Can you remember an occasion when you were tempted to do something wrong? What happened?

Hard to resist
These verses make it clear that temptation can involve suffering. Far from being something to treat lightly – ‘Go on then, just one more slice of chocolate cake – you’re tempting me’ – it’s a serious thing that we can’t escape.

Jesus was faced with temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1–11), and before the anguish of the cross he prayed fervently that he might not have to bear it (Luke 22:39–46).

The fact that he was God – divine – didn’t make it easier for him to resist the temptation to give in or give up. It caused him the greatest suffering to contemplate the depths of our sin and to submit to the punishment of the cross for it, but he who is like us in every way – fully human – did.

Jesus understands
So when we’re tempted, Jesus fully understands how hard it is for us not to give in or give up, and he will help us to resist and continue to live in obedience to him. Growing in faith will certainly involve temptation; Jesus became like us in order to deliver us from sin so that we can grow to be like him.

Respond: Most people have an Achilles heel of one sort or another. In what areas of life do you find it most challenging to obey? Ask the Lord to help you live as he wants you to.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-02-23