One definition
of temptation is a desire to do something, wrong or unwise. The truth
is when we are tempted it does not mean we sin. Although
whatever comes across our mind trying to entice us, draws our mind and heart to
do something unwise, wrong, filthy or even vile might not be our
fault. While we are not responsible for the thoughts that simply drop by in our
mind, we are however responsible how we chose to entertain them.
Oswald Chambers
said: “Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we
would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should
never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to
a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.” A person’s
inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being,
determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits
the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of
his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own
temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the
level of his controlling, inner nature.”
This
quote above has so many implications that one can use it over and over
throughout one’s walk with God. It is true that the type of temptation we face
changes as we get to know God deeper as we learn to abide and
remain grounded in Him through our identity in Him. Oswald is right by
saying we refuse to allow God to lift us up higher. In fact, I know people who
have been Christian for decades, yet suffer temptation that a baby in the faith
is dealing with.
Satan is
relentlessly trying to take us to places that go beyond God’s boundaries for
us. Often he tempts us so gradually, that we are led to sin and we do
not understand how we arrived there. Some of us do not even have the courage to
acknowledge our sin, instead we blame Satan. But in reality Satan is just being
Satan. He is doing what he knows best. It is our job to make sure we are fit in
the faith so we can stand strong and empowered to meet with him head on.
I will give you
an example: Two years after I became a Christian, God made it clear to me that
my body was His temple. I guess this was very important for Him to tell me
because He knew there were hard times ahead since I no longer had a spouse.
This was the late nineties. To help me out He gave me the gift of celibacy
which I knew nothing about until He told me. To my surprise, it was just so
that I could get deeper in Him.
Eight
years ago, He took away the gift of celibacy. So, there were nights that I could
not sleep, some nights I cried myself to sleep. When I asked God “what
gives?” He told me that I had to learn to do not to succumb to
temptation to glorify Him if I wanted to be victorious. I
raked my brain off trying to understand what that meant. I do not mind telling
you the challenge to remain celibate without defiling yourself is enormous and
through the pain a lot of time, I found God really mean.
Now, I
understand what He meant when He said that I had to do it to glorify Him. What
He did not tell me, this was something that I had to become and it was not in
my power to produce in me. Temptation truly is easier to overcome as you live
the abiding life. There you find protection, balance and a strong spiritual
willingness to overcome. The reason I call this a spiritual willingness to
overcome, is because you are not doing it as if you do not want to do Satan’s
dirty job. But, the main reason behind your motives to resist with your mind,
your heart and the willingness not to go there, is something that seems to
be a strong sense of moral integrity. This sense of moral integrity
definitely belongs to the new nature. I know the difference because I know when
I am in spirit and in the flesh. I also know the person I am in the flesh does
not have this superior moral integrity that flows through my choices so easily.
This moral integrity when you act on it, actually glorifies God. This moral
integrity has behind it the fact that I know I am His child, so, what
Satan is trying to lure me with, is non-negotiable as far as I am concerned.
I cannot be the King’s child and wrestle in the mud with Satan. I have
to keep up my decorum.
This is
why Paul commanded us to walk in the Spirit. In this stinking fleshly part of
us, it is easy to let temptation gets the best of us. It overpowers us and
before we know it, we find that we get over God’s boundaries for us.
Don’t entertain
those thoughts when they come to mind, do not rationalize them, do
not indulge yourself. A simple example of that for both men and women would be,
as you surf the internet even with all that you put in place not to encounter pornography,
you find that once in a while, one of them somehow makes its way to you. Your
only course of action is to close your browser so fast that you get dizzy. Not
only that, purposely bring your mind back to God right away. You can do that by
remember a verse, or a moment you had with Him, who you are in Him, anything
that would allow this filth not to find a foothold in your life. The minute you
allow yourself to look for a fraction of a second, it exerts an
influence and your flesh reacts to it. I am not telling you anything that I
have not put into practice in my life.
