About resisting temptation…
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. (NIV)
You are involved in a war. This war is for your soul and where your soul
spends eternity. In this war you can make decisions and take actions. In this
war, one of your objectives should be the total defeat and total annihilation of
personal darkness, including personal temptation. To win this war, you must
recognize temptation is a weapon of Satan used to hurt you and destroy you. If
you cave in to temptation without ever putting up any resistance, you can die an
early death, go to prison, hurt and kill others, leave a trail of pain and chaos
in your life, or all of these. Resisting temptation is possible. Resisting
temptation is doable. One of the ways you can resist temptation is to see
through Satan's purpose for it. God has given you the power to resist and stop
temptation. One of your most powerful weapons in the war for your soul is
surrendering all you have and all you are to Christ. When you are tempted, kneel
at the foot of His cross in humility. When you are tempted, kneel at the foot of
His cross in humble contrition and godly sorrow. Temptation, when it is
resisted, creates in us a pain or a condition of suffering. When you kneel at
the foot of the cross of Christ, you bring this pain or suffering related to
temptation to the feet of our suffering Christ. In Christ, you will find someone
who knows what it means to resist Satan, for Christ resisted him. In Christ, you
will find a key ally in attacking the satanic darkness that wants to attack you.
In Christ, you find a power to always do for others, rather than always giving
in to satanic temptation by selfishly doing for yourself.
