June 9
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36)
The Overcoming Temptation booklet has several other noteworthy points regarding this principle, such as not doing things if our conscience is bothered by it, refusing to allow temptation to get a foothold in our thinking, refusing to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, refusing to go back to guilt and shame, refusing to throw away our confidence before God, refusing to grieve or quench the Spirit of God, refusing the persuasions and reasoning of unbelievers, and similar things, and I encourage you to study those principles and look up the verses given under each one.
Today and tomorrow I hope to finish up this principle with a few thoughts about the concept of persistently refusing temptation and what that means for us. Persistence is key to lasting victory. I can be very good at resisting temptation immediately and decisively today and then run right into sin’s arms tomorrow. Have any of you experienced that? I certainly have. How does this come about? What is going on in my mind when this happens? How can I be so confident and strong in my hatred for sin and my resolve to overcome today and be so deceived by it tomorrow? What do I need to do to ensure that today and tomorrow and the next day I will have the willingness, zeal, faith, and ability to overcome temptation? This is such a crucial question for all of us, because it isn’t a great start that God commends as much as a good finish. Enduring resistance to overcoming temptation is essential to us all.
I do not claim to be an expert at this, but I will offer a few thoughts that have helped me in this area. First, it is crucial that we have a clear foundation of the things that we have already discussed, such as knowing God’s truth, having the faith to believe it, loving the Lord with all our hearts, and the other Rebuilding and Resisting principles that we have discussed. I think it is also crucial that we have a daily time of Bible study and prayer, devotions as we call it in my family, a daily habit of coming before the Lord and seeking His face. Make sure you are doing these things and the other Overcoming Temptation principles that we have and will be discussing.
Beyond these things, I have found it very helpful to pray to the Lord every day for victory. Where I have gotten tripped up in the past is that I get zealous for the Lord and very sorry and repentant for my sins, and then I determine or even promise I won’t do the thing ever again, etc. I will then go a while in that strength and determination, but over time that zeal diminishes, my hatred for the sin diminishes, and the next thing I know the difficult circumstances or sadness or anger or exasperation or loneliness or whatever wrong thinking or feelings have me deceived and lost, and I fall into sin again.
To be continued tomorrow.