Playbook: The Game Plan for Navigating TemptationSample

After reading this verse, my initial response was, “WHAT?!!” Why should we feel joy when we experience trials? As we’ve covered over the last several weeks, we all have bad habits that, despite our attempts to stop, we continue to do. In other words, we all experience temptation. When we experience temptation, we can be frustrated, confused, or even angry. Scripture tells us that we should feel joy when facing challenges while trying to follow Jesus’ lead. Many of us may be confused by this truth, but we should think harder about it. When someone wants to get better at spelling, they practice spelling more. When people want to improve at math, they do more math equations. When we want to be closer to Jesus by getting better at following His lead, we should practice following the call of Scripture in our lives. And what is a better opportunity to practice that than rejecting temptation?

Next time we feel temptation, we should find joy in remembering that, by rejecting temptation, we are getting better at following Jesus’ calling and strengthening our relationship with Him.