The Faith I Live By - May 16

nathan made this entry on May 29th, 2008
Topic(s): Temptation, Sin

I read this devotion awhile ago, however I never got around to making an entry on it. It brings out some good points about temptation and sin. When we are tempted to sin, and we succumb and fall, we often afterwards get upset with ourselves because we weren't strong enough to resist. What we fail to understand most of the time, though, is that our ability to resist temptation does not come from our own inner strength. Thus, it is not a matter of being strong enough to resist when the temptation comes.

Our response to a temptation is just a revelation of where our hearts already were at that point in time. In order to overcome any temptation, our minds must be fully surrendered to God, and our trust completely in Him. This surrender must be continuous; not just in the morning or in church. Unfortunately there are times in the day when, due to a certain series of events, our minds completely drift away from God. It is at those points in time when we have no defense to temptations. When the temptation comes and we fall, it merely just reveals that we were going about in an unsurrendered mindset up to that point.

Instead of telling ourselves that next time we won't fall, and next time we will be strong enough to resist, we should realize that it's not the temptation that has made us fall. Our hearts had already fallen before the temptation had come, and the temptation was just an external testament to this.

What we should do is analyze the series of events that led us up to the state our mind was in when the temptation came. What happened between the morning devotion and the time of falling that caused you to drift away from God? We often don't realize that we have drifted, because it often happens one small step at a time. Perhaps someone cut you off while driving to work, and you got angry at them. Maybe later while at work your boss gave you some extra work, which you didn't want to take on. Maybe during your lunch break you watched a television program or online video that had suggestive themes. Maybe on the way home you listened to a song on the radio that was ungodly.

Little by little certain actions and thoughts cause us to drift further and further from God. Eventually, we reach a point where God is no longer king of our thoughts. We continue along in this state, unaware, until a temptation comes, and we find ourselves with no means to resist it.

The point of what I am saying is this: our response to a temptation just reveals the state our mind was already in before the temptation even came. If we truly want to get victory, we must recognize what events caused us to be in that state. Then we must react accordingly to prevent these events from doing the same thing to us again.

Perhaps we have to give up certain things that in themselves are not sinful, but in the end lead our minds away from God. 

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