Welcome back friends to the last post of 2022! Unfortunately, we did not finish the Journey to Marriage series including singleness, dating, and marriage. I got sick in the middle of that series, and decided to just take a break a from it all together when I missed the post date. Now, we’re ending 2022 with the final part to fighting temptation. This one will be short, I noticed recently that people are reading my shorter posts more often than my longer posts.
What Did We Say About Temptation?
Last time, we went over what temptation was: the solicitations of the passions. We also found that temptation itself is not a desire, it feeds off of our unclean desires. That needed to be established before we went on. Then, we looked into examples and learned that overcoming temptation is easy. All you have to do, is speak the Word. We went into what exaxtly, ‘speaking the Word’ means as far as just quoting scriptures. It’s beyond that.
Speaking the Word requires us to know Jesus as the living Word, so when we speak a scripture, we know we’re calling on Jesus. Fighting temptation is all about our will power and our relationship with God. Both of which God has two scriptures that capture this in a nutshell:
For our relationship with God
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life
John 3:16
For our will power
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Phil 4:13
Boom! Those two scriptures cover us, so there’s no reason to be losing to temptation when we’ve got scriptural power backing us. These aren’t the only two scriptures of course, but start with these at least. If you wanted one more though, one that covers both relationship and will power, here’s a favorite of mine:
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4
God is in us, and because of this, we can overcome temptation. Yall, that scripture alone is more than enough for me!
Jesus, and Modern Day Temptation
Ok, so this section is going to look a little different. I am literally copying and pasting my notes from when I studied this during morning prayer with God. the Holy Spirit just poured this all into my spirit, and I wanted you guys to have that raw unfiltered information. Sometimes when we explain things, we try to fix it to make it easier to understand. But I didn’t want that, I wanted you guys to have exactly what the Holy Spirit explained and revealed to me. So here’s my notes from my phone on temptation… I corrected the spelling eras though-I didn’t want yall laughing at me! Ha!
When Jesus was tempted, there were three temptations: (Matt 4:1-11)
Eat: turn rocks into bread
Personal attacks on every single person. Each temptation gets stronger, asks for more from Jesus (and us). This is your basic level of sin. What does the devil easily tempt you with? Food, lying, cheating, sex? Porn, drugs, crowd pleasing, loneliness? This is basics of your sin nature.
This one is important because this has to do with how we feel. ‘Right now’ fulfilment. How do you want to satisfy yourself? This is a test of our patience (and patience is a display of faith, but that’s an article for another time). Can you wait on God? Or will you fix it yourself? It’s like when God tells you to sow but a new bill pops up. What are you going to do?
Our hope lies in knowing that we cannot live on bread alone. Meaning, the pleasures of the world cannot satisfy us.
Worship: give you the kingdoms in exchange
The only thing the devil has to offer the world is the kingdoms—money, power (govt), citizens to rule over (fans). That’s why so many corrupt businesses have their hand in some of everything, because they’ve given the devil their worship. While they may not physically build an altar to him and practice satanic rituals, when you don’t worship God and walk up righteously, you give your worship and devotion to the devil.
Worship is a powerful tool, taking that from you renders you nearly helpless in your walk with God. Worship brings you into the presence of God, it allows you to experience your Father in Heaven. Our hope to resist this temptation is knowing that God is the only One to be worshipped because He has commanded it and He is worthy.
Our hope also lies in eternity. We know the world will pass away. The only thing Satan can offer you in return for your life of worship is worldly pleasures. But God offers us eternal life, and the wealth of the wicked.
Testing God: perfectly recalling the Word
This is an attack on the church. It’s what’s happening right now, with sugar coating. We are perfectly quoting the Scripture but misusing the quotes. Satan has always twisted the Word(s) of God since the Garden. Now the church has fallen victim to that twisting and using the Word how they want to.
Many are recalling Scripture, quoting them and sometimes even with understanding. However, they are misusing it the way the devil did.
Our hope lies in God, knowing that we can trust Him. Putting our trust in God literally means we don’t have to test God. We know He will do it because He said it and He is not man that He should lie.
Conclusion
Well, that’s it folks. 2022 has come to an end, and we are geared up and ready to fight off temptation in 2023. We’re also a little more established in our relationship with God as we’ve come to understand patience and love, and singleness. 2023 is going to be one for the books, so let’s get ready for it.
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We’ll talk soon in 2023.
