The Power Of Temptation

It's Wednesday night, 5:00 p.m., bible study starts at 6:30, as you're leaving work you review your mental check list of things that really need to be done - tonight. On your way home you start debating with yourself if you should really take the time to go to bible study. After all, there is laundry to be done, a checkbook to be balanced and a dozen other things waiting for you when you walk into the house.


You walk into the house and can smell dinner already started. The dogs bark their greetings at you and the cat comes and smells your shoe and runs for the hills. Awww....yes - home. You look at the clock that is now saying you need to leave in 45 minutes. You start hearing that little voice in your head, "why rush with dinner and go back out where it's cold and dark? Stay home in your warm house, enjoy a leisurely dinner with your family and watch Survivor. After all, it's not your fault they moved it to Wednesday nights." You listen to the voice.

Our latest sermon series on temptation has really got my attention. Not that I didn't think of temptation before but God has used this time to convict me and to open my eyes to the temptations that I have been given to. I never really thought about there being something much bigger at stake than the temptation it's self. Yeah the big temptations-the big sins, everyone knows that if we are tempted to kill someone and follow through that yes, there is something much bigger on the other side of that temptation.

It's those times when we have that brownie when no ones looking, swipe that piece of plastic (our spouse will never know-right), or decide to stay home from the bible study or small group you've committed too. There are countless temptations facing us everyday. Some are easier than others to resist - some have such a pull on us that alone we can't pull away from it.

1st Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

I'm not ready for this series to be over. I feel like I still very much in the middle of it and I have so much to learn. But I am thankful that God used this series to get my attention. To remind me that giving into a temptation will affect my faith, my family, and my future and possibly a future that may not even by my own but effects someone else.


There is no way to avoid temptation - with the help of the Holy Spirit we can over come them.

If you feel comfortable, please leave a comment letting me know how I can pray for you. What temptations are you facing? What temptation have you overcome? I'd love hearing from you.