Tempted?

Snack chips are a weakness of mine! Just about any variety will do, however sour cream and onion potato chips and nacho cheese corn chips top my personal snack list. But, chips are not health food so I must fight off the longing to eat them. They are loaded with carbs, fats, and sodium and pack a calorie punch into a tiny serving of about 8 chips. Who eats just 8 chips? Remember that old line ad line from Lay's - "Betcha Can't Eat Just One" ? Oh, what a temptation they are! Because I know my proclivity for over-indulgence, I take active steps to keep myself from eating chips by addressing two things: opportunity and desire. We just don't keep them in the house which takes care of opportunity most of the time. You can't eat what's not available. When I'm buying lunch at the deli, I have to address desire because that bag of Doritos calls out to me. So I remind myself that my hunger will soon be satisfied with more healthy food, that the apple will be much more nourishing, and that in an hour I will be glad I didn't wolf down 400-500 calories in 45 seconds - and I walk right past the chip display with desire in check.

Hopefully, you realize that this TFTD is not really about snack chips! It is about temptation, which is the common experience of every living human being. The Bible says that "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." (1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV) We often think, "Nobody will understand how difficult this is. Or, we live alone with our struggle thinking, "I'm weird, twisted, because surely no one else has this kind of desire." But, we're wrong on both counts. Temptation is part of being human. The truth is that temptation's power is reduced when we find others who understand us, who support us, and open up our hearts. That's the genius of 12 step groups. Those groups bring together people who are slaves to alcohol, drugs, food and provide them a safe place to admit to their temptation, to process their inner thoughts with others who share the same way of thinking. Together, they are able to find strength to defeat the temptation.

It is true that we are each tempted by different things depending on our personality and/or our situation. Temptation comes to us out of the natural longings and needs of our lives. Sexual longing quickly morphs into lust. We easily slide from a proper use of money, which allows us to provide for ourselves, into greed. Our need to be secure is a source of temptation to become people who control others. Our God-given curiosity about the world we live can become the fertile ground in which doubt grows with the rapidity of weeds. James explains this - ". . . each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:14-15, NIV)

You may thinking, "What about the Devil, Jerry? Doesn't he have anything to do with temptation?" Yes, he does. The Bible convinces me that evil has a father, that evil is organized by a person who brings his demons to fight against God and good in me and in my world. But, I believe we give him way too much power by blaming him directly for things he does only indirectly. The Devil can only exploit desires that exist in you and me. For example, if I refuse to hate and practice forgiveness on a regular basis, the Devil has no way to tempt me to murder anybody! He can't plant that seed in my mind if there is no soil in which it can grow. Does he try to manipulate situations so that I will misunderstand others or misjudge them? Yes, he does! And where I allow him to succeed in these small ways, he finds opportunity to do worse things. And, yes, over time, if a person gives more and more of his life over to evil, the Devil is able to use that person to do greater and greater evil.

In the life of the Believer, where the Spirit of God is actively at work, the places to deal with temptation are at the points of desire and opportunity. First of all, we need to understand our true needs and how we think about them. Let me use sex as an illustration since so many people get that one all tangled up! Sex is a God-given part of our humanity, a gift He has given to us that propagates the human race, that provides us with pleasure, and that powerfully bonds us to the person we marry. Sexual desire is not sinful- in itself. But, because it is such a powerful part of us and because we live in a culture that worships sex, our legitimate sexual desire is a frequent source of temptation! One of the ways we defeat that temptation is to satisfy the desire in the way that God intended. The Scripture is quite practical about this. Take a look at the opening lines of 1 Corinthians 7. There Paul makes a couple of suggestions. "Get married and don't withhold sex from your mate!" These choices, he says, deprive Satan of a place to tempt us. To return to my illustration about chips- I am much less inclined to long for a bag of Doritos after I've eaten a balanced, healthy meal! So the first place to attack temptation is at the source of desire asking two questions: What legitimate need is letting this temptation gain my attention? How can I meet that need in a good and godly way?

Then there is opportunity! If we know that we are prone to temptation around certain things, we would be wise to limit our exposure to those things. Evangelist Billy Graham, who has served his entire career in very high profile ministry, recognized his humanity and the tendency for temptation to grow in strength when we are alone. So, he and his inner circle of associates made a pact that they would not be alone, that they would serve as a team! This limited their opportunities to give in to temptation. An alcoholic who is serious about staying sober doesn't keep a huge wine cellar full in his house, nor does he spend Friday nights in a bar! Believer, don't set yourself up to sin by creating opportunities for temptation. Often victory is found in something as simple as just not going somewhere, or taking a preventative step early on before the temptation is a raging war.

Here's God's promise for you and me. Meditate on it today - "But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it." (1 Corinthians 10:13, NLT)
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