Overcoming our Addiction to Temptation

Hello, my name is Paula.  And I need to overcome an addiction - to temptation.

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew to do the right thing but you wind up doing the wrong thing?  Everything in your mind said, “no, no, no, don’t do it? But in your heart, you said, “why not?”

Temptation is defined as the desire to perform an action that one may enjoy immediately or in the short term but will probably later regret for various reasons.  – Wikipedia

Satan is a powerful drug dealer and master con-artist. The only way to put a drug dealer out of business is to stop buying what he is selling.  And he is only selling what we want.  If we did not want it, we would not be tempted to buy it.  He is presenting something to people that they want so badly that they are willing to sin to get. He will provide the perfect opportunity, the perfect setting, to appeal to your own desire.   A con-artist can only sell, deceive, or entice us only when we are needy or greedy.  We cannot be enticed if we are content.  The bible says Godliness with contentment is great gain.  (I Timothy 6:6).

Temptation is only a temptation because you like what is being offered. James 1:14 says every man is tempted,(lured into a trap) when he is drawn away (by the attraction ) of his own lust (desiring something in the wrong way), and enticed.

Satan became masterful because he has studied human beings since the garden of Eden.  He slithered around in the garden, found out what Eve’s weakness was, and at a moment when she was alone, he tempted her with a lie, that she would not die.  We will all someday die, but sometimes the death we experience when we succumb to temptation is not a natural death, but a death of a relationship, trust or our character.

How do you know you when you are being tempted?

When what you want or in what you thinking about doing, you are willing to compromise obedience to God and compromise love for others to have it.  Or it leads you to a position where other people will not see the very character of God in you, but they will see the opposite.

Anything that becomes more important than loving God or loving others, you are being tempted with those desires. That is the heart of temptation. When Satan draws you away, it is NEVER in a way that is pleasing to God.  It is always in a way to lead you to dishonor God and to dishonor people.

I have treated people poorly because I was not being given what I wanted or what I thought I  deserved.  We feel justified.  When we have these desires then we have not yet accepted God’s will for us.  The real enemy is not your spouse, your parents, your co-worker or the friend who hurt you.  Ephesians 6:12 tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

God will use others to unfold some of the worst things about ourselves.  We may think they are the ones with the problem, but they are not the ones causing the pain.  They are just revealing the character of our heart.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. – Proverbs 27:6.