According to the Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, to “tempt”, means, “to attract somebody or make somebody want to do or have something, even
if they know it is wrong.”
Temptations started from the heavens! “Morning Star” (now Satan) was
tempted to overthrow God Almighty because he wanted to promote himself above
his leader – the Almighty God. He
fell. He was thrown into planet
earth. Adam and Eve were tempted
(Gen.3:1-6) to eat the forbidden fruit.
And they fell. Moses was tempted
by the stiff-necked people to be angry to the point that Satan could dare
struggle to have his soul for possession. Jesus Christ our Lord was tempted by
Satan to bow down for him so he could be king over all the earth. He overcame Satan.
We all know that alcohol, sexual immorality, corruption of any kind is
bad but the spirit of temptations blurs our understanding because of the
pleasure we want to derive from our misdeed.
For one to be tempted, there is an expectation behind it. The goal of Satan was to overthrow the
Almighty God. The goal of Adam and Eve
was to be wiser than God had permitted them.
The goal of Satan was to prevent Jesus from accomplishing his
predestined goal of salvation for mankind.
One thing is sure, there’s no sin that is not preceded by ‘temptation’;
therefore temptation is gives birth to all sins. And nobody is exempted from being
tempted. However, our response to every
temptation is what determines its outcome we obtain. When faced with temptations, two options are
constantly open to us: to reject the urge or obey it, each having its own
consequences.
No wonder the Bible commands us to ‘flee from all appearances of
sin”. To flee from it is the best option
but there are invisible forces that makes it a serious burden to flee instead
most often, we fall. The constant
consequence of falling into sins is regret and sorrow. We know that what we are about to do is wrong
albeit we are lured into doing it then facing the negative consequences.
Yes, James 4:7 admonishes us to resist the devil for him to flee from
us, but the truth is that no man can resist the devil by his own power but by
the Spirit of the Lord. That’s why to
avoid temptation we must be constantly operating in the spirit so that we can
identify sins and nip them in the bud as they arise. Move closer to God today and overcome the
tempter and his temptations! I pray for you that God will make it easy for you
to be closer and closer to Him so you can overcome all temptations in Jesus’
name.
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