Thought for Today: “Beware of Temptations”

Truthfully, it’s not the temptations that get us into trouble, it’s giving in to them.

The Apostle James said, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15)

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, it says He rejected it at once, taking the temptations directly to the Scriptures and rebuking it, which as we know, was Satan.

Temptations are powerful, and the longer we entertain them, the more powerful they become, eventually leading us to sin and then death. Therefore, the best way to resist temptations is to do it at the beginning, because by the end it isn’t pretty.

We see this scenario played out with David’s oldest son, Amnon. He was tempted by Satan to have romantic feelings towards his sister, Tamar. But he didn’t resist it, in fact it says he became obsessed with her until he ended up raping her, and later was put to death for it (2 Samuel 13).

And while there isn’t anything we can do to stop the temptation from coming, there is a lot we can do to stop it from taking root and allow sin to flourish in our hearts.

Martin Luther said, “Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.”