Dealing with Sin One Temptation at a Time

A few days ago I read through the temptation narrative in Matthew 4. I was struck by the commonality of the temptations that the devil offered Jesus. They were as basic as every day needs of nutrition. Is food evil? No it's a good thing for us to have food so that we can sustain our bodies to do kingdom work. Jesus refuses Satan's offer to change stones into bread not because it was a morally bankrupt decision but because it was settling for less than God's best plan for him. With our lives the same can be said, we often settle for a good thing by giving into temptation rather than waiting on The Lord for the best thing.

For instance, a person needs money to live and pay bills, but stealing that money from someone else isn't the best way to obtain it. We should work at our job for that money so that we can honestly meet our financial obligations. The same could be said with sex. Sex is a good thing, something that God ordained to be celebrated between a man and a woman united as one  in marriage. When we take the good gift of sex and twist it with sex outside of a biblical marriage covenant, we are giving into temptation by settling for something less than God's best for us. How will you choose this week to say no to those temptations that you are faced with?

You see temptation and our struggle with sin can be a huge challenge because we look at our sin and see the Mt. Everest. We forget that defeating sin in our lives is about winning each battle against temptation decision at a time. You can't gain victory over sin in one swift swoop, just as you can't climb Everest in one step or even one attempt. The mountain is successfully summited  when we take one step at a time and one day at a time rather than trying to do it all at once. Celebrate the small victories over temptation each day because ultimately that leads to spiritual formation of Christ in you,which is our ultimate purpose.