Thursday 3 November 2011

UNDERSTANDING THE STRATEGIES OF THE ENEMY – PART 2:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO YIELD TO TEMPTATION
From the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden and the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness, it is very clear that in reality every temptation which we face as human beings in this world can be divided into 3 broad categories:

·         The lust of the eyes, i.e. a craving for everything you see
·         The lust of the flesh, i.e. a craving for physical pleasure; and
·         The pride of life, i.e. pride in your achievements and possessions

As we saw in Part 1, the Devil does not have any new ideas. However, he remains very sly, cunning and crafty. Remember that the goal of temptation is to make you fall. So what does the enemy do? Well, he adapts and modifies his tricks and the lure of his temptation to suit your natural inclinations, desires and tendencies. Like a skilful fisherman, he uses bait in a bid to make you fall. He tantalises you to make it more difficult for you to resist him. For instance, when he tempted the Lord Jesus in the wilderness, the Lord would have been very hungry having just fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. And guess what, the first of the three temptations was about food. The devil tells him that ‘since’ He is the Son of God, He should turn the stones into bread.

In much the same way, if you are a man with a roving eye, you don’t need a prophet to tell you that the enemy will zero into that area of your life, such that most of the temptations you face will relate to lust, and to women. Know yourself, and avoid any appearance of evil. What I have found very helpful is to have ‘moral hedges’ around me. A moral hedge is something which is not unlawful but which you refrain from doing, because it may not be expedient. It acts as an imaginary protective wall. For instance, one of my moral hedges is to ‘avoid the second look’. So for instance, if I am driving and I see the figure of a lady ahead of me, I don’t turn back to have a second look at what she really looks like!

Nobody is immune from being tempted. This is not surprising, because temptation in itself is not sin; it is yielding to temptation that is sin! After all, the Bible informs us that Jesus was tempted in all points like we are, although He did not sin. Crucially, the Bible assures that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear; and furthermore, that with every temptation He will make a way for you to escape. So really, you can live without yielding to temptation!

3 comments:

  1. The second look is something we men should adhere to. It is very easy to fall into the harmless feel of just looking and then checking to confirm what I saw was good both views...

    Thats already contending with what is not yours. The person might be long gone but the mind as transfixed an image with and then the play action starts and it gradually builds....

    Like Rev Pedro said no one is immuned... but GOD is always faithful if we look unto Him to help us not yield...

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  2. We really need to appreciate Rev Pedro for delving into the area of Spiritual Warfare which is extremely relevant to the Body of Christ today.

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