How To Love the Lord thy God

With all your heart, soul, mind and strength

Chapter 6 The Temptation. The Test

In  the course of time (and this is not going to take long) after you have told the Lord that you have truly and sincerely repented of your sins. And this is especially true of that one sin that is the real bugaboo for you. the Bible tells us that we all struggle particularly with on sin that is toughest on us. In He.12:1 It says, “let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensures us…” notice he says “the sin” singular, you can look it up in your blue letter bible app and yes it is singular and no it is not plural. It is written “the sin” I’m being emphatic about this here because our Lord knows that we get stuck on one particular sin and that sin is the one we struggle mightily with, and that is the one we are going to do battle with first. Jesus is not afraid of a fight.

So again let me say that in the course of time we are going to be tempted to sin the very sin that we said we were going to repent of. Now we know that God does not tempt anyone nor is He tempted by any sin (James 1) but we are tempted when drawn away by our own desires. However, in James chapter 1 he also says, “Blessed is the one who preserves (endures) under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

So when you are tempted, well that’s your fault, but you are also tested by God. God uses this opportunity to test you. The question he wants to know is, “did you really repent, just how seriously were you? Are you just saying the words? “Were you actually just confessing your sins to me and not seriously attempting to actually stop this sinning?” He knows, he finds out easily enough but more importantly he wants you to find out something about you. Are you going to give up, or are you ready for the next step in this amazing adventure, this once in a lifetime opportunity, this chance to kick satan’s butt out of the ball park? Are you ready for the battle? Saddle up because its going to be all out war. And the stakes are high. Satan and the Lord Jesus Christ are about to do battle for your very soul, and you are going to be right in the thick of it.

So what are you going to do? What can you do? I bet you can think of two things you can do. One is to surrender to the temptation and sin, two would be to fight it. That is your only two choices, fight or surrender. Do you want to continue on the path that leads to loving God with all your heart? If so you must always choose to fight. Always. It is all about the fight. Often times life seems like a gentle river silently and gracefully flowing to the sea, but the reality in the spiritual world is quite different there is a fierce battle going on for your soul. Satan knows if he can get you thrown into the cheap grace dumpster he will win the battle and have you for dinner in hell.

Christ, who is infinite love resides in you but remains on standby, kinda like your computer, he is waiting, sometimes he waits and waits and waits, because he has a high respect for you freedom to choose, God has given us free will and He respects that. Nothing is going to happen regarding Jesus helping you out of your dilemma until you call out to Him and plead for His help.

You must feel at this point, when you are under temptation, it is like an attack on you, it is overwhelming sometimes, can you remember a verse you have memorized? Nope. What to do, what to do. You don’t want to surrender to your lusts but you don’t see a way out of it. The temptation is way way to strong.

Lets stop here, don’t worry we will talk more in the next chapter about the tension that you are feeling at the point of temptation and how to get out of this mess. But lets talk about how you got yourself into this mess. There are some life style changes that you have to make. In the Lords Prayer we are taught, “And lead us not into temptation.” Of course Christ does not lead us into temptations but we lead ourselves into situations that ends up leading into temptation. What are you looking at on the tv? What are you looking at on your iPad or your phone? Your eyes are the window of the soul, through them all kinds of evil can enter into your very soul. 

Here is some sound wisdom from Proverbs, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity, keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” Pr.4:23-27 NIV

The best way to fight against temptations is to avoid temptations altogether. I know that is impossible altogether but it is important to minimize it. That is what Soloman is saying in Proverbs 4.  Some of you may be facing more temptations than the rest of us. I don’t suppose I have an answer for all that is happening in your lives, so I have to speak in generalities. Have you, as a Christian ,pretty much given up on the fight against sin? Have you thrown in the towel and decided you are not going to fight anymore but instead just go ahead and give in to your carnal desires? Are you sinning a lot? 

If you have been sinning a lot than don’t be surprised to learn it is going to be a harder battle to get out, but there is a silver lining to this, Jesus said he who has been forgiven much, loves much. So perhaps the Lord has so ordered things as to encourage those who have fallen deep into sin and has promised a greater prize if they are willing to get into the ring and fight.

Stay tuned to chapter 6 where we will discuss the tension we feel inside ourself between good and evil. The battle is about to take place.