Friday, October 22, 2021
For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. Romans 7:22-23 NIV
The Truth About Temptation
Before sin possesses your life, it possesses your thoughts. The mind is the battleground for sin. There is a battle raging within your mind in which the only prisoner that can be taken is you. The devil wants to make your mind his spiritual headquarters. He wants to steal your joy, peace, satisfaction and, most of all, your purpose.
The devil in on a mission to capture, control, and corrupt the minds of all men. From the time that Satan entered this world he has always had only one strategy to attack this world. He began it with Eve when he got in her head and confused her about God. Satan’s desire is to make us think wrong before we act wrong to avoid the guilt and shame of wrong (Justify our sin). The tools he uses are speculation, rationalization, humanism (the chief end of God is the good of man – God exists only for our benefit), and control of the mind over FAITH.
We think temptation is something out there, something external, something we see out there and say, “that’s looks good to me”. It wouldn’t tempt you if there wasn’t already a corollary desire inside you. It isn’t just a onetime thing that pops up and takes you off guard. It is a process that Satan begins in our minds. We all have desires that are wrong and Satan knows our weaknesses better than we do. These are not necessarily evil desires, just natural human desires but in the wrong setting will lead to sin, sin that could destroy lives.
Satan replaces God’s truths with his lies and his mode of attack is deception. There is a good reason he is called the “Father of Lies” (John 8:44). He deceives us into believing that what is truly a sin isn’t so bad if we just control it - We can have a little innocent “fun”. God will understand. But God does not understand when we choose to live in sin and make the choice to not surrender our temptation to Him. With His power, Satan’s attacks and attempts to deceive us and gain control of our minds will be thwarted. In His power we can overcome anything and everything. Just hand it over to Him, surrender your temptations to Him and trust His power to defeat this hold on you.
Scripture to Claim:
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV
