Temptation

What really catches your eye? When I was young it was pretty girls! But now in the silver years of my life it’s pie. Yep, I walk by a pie and stop, turn around and I’m like: “ Whoa baby give me some a that !” I should add that I’m married to a pretty lady so that helps ( with the pretty girl thing). As human being we have to deal with something that we couldn’t stop if we wanted to. It’s called temptation. We don’t ask for it. We don’t desire it. In fact, I wish it just wouldn’t happen; but it does. We have many things that temp us and our enemy is keen to those things and is quite capable of using them against us for the purpose of goading us into doing things that displease God our Creator. Temptation in and of itself is not a sin. It’s what happens to us. We don’t do the tempting. We do, however, need to be on our guard against it. First Corinthians 10:13 says: No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Sin happens when we linger in our time of temptation long enough to be so enticed by whatever it is that is tempting us, that we want it more than we want to do what is right. So then, we give in to it. So how can we keep ourselves from doing that? A good place to start is knowing God’s word. And to know it means we have to study it. God has given us a way to overcome temptation in His word and if we study it, His Holy Spirit that lives in us will remind us in our inner selves, right when temptation comes, of what his word says about that very thing. He has also blessed us with each other. If we share our temptations with each other then we can pray for each other and hold each other accountable. For example, I’ve already told you that pie is tempting to me. So if you were to see me in the pie store drooling over a big ole pie, you would come on up and slap my hand and remind me that God isn’t pleased with gluttony!! See how that works. Also, we are responsible for not putting ourselves in a place that might cause us to be tempted. So I shouldn’t have been in the pie store to begin with!! Right?
Dear Lord, thank you for helping us in our hour of temptation. Help us to run away from those things that are displeasing to you!
Love y’all