July 1
“For my eyes are toward Thee, O God, the Lord; In Thee I take refuge; do not leave me defenseless. Keep me from the jaws of the trap which they have set for me, And from the snares of those who do iniquity.” (Psalm 141:8-9)
We have spoken much of prayer earlier in the year, and one of the REBUILD principles (Principle 10: REINFORCE the defenses with unceasing prayer) also focuses specifically on this. Earlier in the year we differentiated between three types of praying: (a) daily prayers for being delivered from temptation that day and for accomplishing major breakthroughs in life and the lives of others, (b) continual prayers throughout the day for wisdom, guidance, and success in the things we are doing at the moment, and (c) urgent, crying out prayers for emergencies. The REINFORCE the defenses with unceasing prayer principle was more along the lines of daily prayers (a), and this principle, REQUEST God to help you, has in mind the crying out to God types of prayers when we are in the midst of an urgent struggle, the times when we are being tempted by Satan.
“In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears.” (Psalm 18:6)
I am surprised how often I don’t put this into practice when I am tempted. I think it starts with not wanting to be tempted and not wanting to fail. When that is our mindset from the beginning, it is easier to remember to pray for God’s help when we are tempted. If we approach sin with the intention of being enticed or secretly wanting to sin, we will not pray for God’s help, and this course of action probably won’t even occur to us. If we maintain our vigilance and determination to not sin, once we see sin pressing at the door we will realize we are being pressed hard and hopefully recall that we ought to be urgently crying out to God for help, asking Him for the willpower, the resolve, the purity of mind, the love of Christ, and the way of escape so we can endure and overcome.
As the temptation continues to badger us, because often temptation doesn’t leave with the first bit of refusal we offer (which often can be more of a hesitation rather than a decisive refusal), it will begin to deceive us. Therefore, early on, immediately when we realize that we are being tempted to sin, we ought to cry out to God for help. If we wait too long to ask for God’s help, we may become deceived or we may miss the way we need to take to escape it. Our minds can easily become cloudy and unfocused and enticed. Sometimes we can easily be persuaded to give in to sin. So we have to ask for God’s help immediately and get into that habit.
Cry out to God early and often when you are being tempted. Make urgent prayers to Him one of the first things you do when you realize you are being tempted, especially when you are being tempted with the things you have the most difficulty resisting.