What Will You Do With Temptation

What does the word "Temptation"bring to your mind?What do you think when you hear that word?Maybe you would you would reather just not talk about it, and the things it makes you do.And maybe you don't want to admit that you are having a hard time dealing with it.Temtation is not sin its what you do with it that either pushes you closer to God or pulls you away from God.Lets dig deeper into what the Bible says about Temptation.In 1 corinthians 10:13Paul said"there hath no teamtation taken you but such as is commen to man:but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it."
Satan wants us to fall and trip up and ruin our lives and our walk with God.His greatest wictory is to get Christians to trip up and pull us from our close relationship with or Lord and savior and turn us around the opposite way of him.
The problem comes about when we think we can do it on our own and not trip up.But again Paul warns us in 1corinthians10:12"LE HIM THAT THINKETH HE STANDETH TAKE HEED LEST HE FALL"!!! Satan does not know everything he can not read minds but he does do his home work.He hits our weak spots where he knows we will be ticked off You say how does he know where our weak spots our well the thing is when ever you say man that really ticks me off or that really makes me mad that is when he hears that and will bring more of those things in to your life.
We think we have the temptations under control as long as we keep an eye out for the "BIG SINS" but even the smallest things can make you trip up even the slitest desire can make us trip and fall.Temptations attract us and if we dont turn around and run from them they will lead us to sin.
James1:14-15 state"But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust,and enticed.Then when lust hath concived it bringeth forth sin : and sin,when it is finished,bringeth forth death."The steps from temptation are easy we give in then that sin pushes away from God and that what satan wants.

So DO YOU STOP YOUR TEMPTATIONS FROM BECOMING SINS?

PREPARE

First of all you have to want to stand against satan and really desire to follow Jesus. If in your mind you are sizing out the pros and cons of following Jesus and sinning then chances are you will most likely trip up and fall. Be honest with god if you would rather sin and do all that stuff then ask God to change your heart so you can start following him, also ask him to open your eyes to see how wrong it is he has been there:"for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we ar yet with out sin"Hebrews 4:15
Once you have the desire to follow Him then you have to make a choice to deal with the temptations head on when they come. Dont try to ignore the temptation or that will give satan a crack in the window to come in.You need to be activly involved in seeking righteousness and gaurd your self with Gods help.One way to help stay out of tempting places is have a plan have others to hold you accountable.



PRAYER
As we read in hebrews 4:15 Jesus is our High Priest and through him we can approach our heavenly father.HE wants to handle our sins that we struggle with we give those sins up to him by prayer we need to spend daily time with him and give our sins and temptations up to him and when we get tempted always run to God.

PERSEVERANCE
James 1:2-4 simply says" My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations;knowing this,that the trying of your faith worketh patience.But let patience have her perfect work that ye ma beperfect and entire wanting nothing"Perseverance helps build caracter and helps us build our relationship with The Son OF GOD.When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by satan in Matthew4 Jesus was physically worn down. yet instead of letting satan get to him he persevered and won the victory we need to becom more like him. And we do that by resisting temptations and following Jesus


~Paul Andrews