Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?Sýnishorn

How to Win Over Temptation

Temptation is an invitation or an enticement to commit an immoral act. Right now, Satan is raging over the earth as a roaring lion, trying to devour Christians through powerful enticements toward immorality. No one is immune, and the closer you get to God, the more Satan will desire to sift you.

The simple secret of bearing up under any temptation is to break the fear of Satan’s power. Fear is the only power Satan has over man. Man cries out, “I’m hooked! I can’t stop. I’m spellbound and in the devil’s power. The devil makes me do it!”

As long as you are afraid of the devil, you can never break the power of any temptation.

We are not delivered from temptation but from the fear of the devil to make us yield to it. We will keep on being tempted until we come to the place of rest in our faith. That rest is an unshakable confidence that God has defeated Satan. Satan has no right or claim on us, and we will come forth as gold tried in the fire.

You don’t have to yield to temptation, but at times you may. Even the saintliest of God’s people occasionally do. That is why God made special provisions for those who fail. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

Our Lord is not nearly as grieved by our yielding to temptation as he is by our not learning how to deal with it. He is more hurt by the fact that we have not trusted his power to deliver. God is hurt not so much by what we do as he is by what we do not do. 

Some people really don’t want to be free from their temptation. They flirt and play with it as a kind of spiritual brinkmanship. They know God can keep them from their sin, but deep inside they prefer to have a season of fun, a few rounds of immorality, a little taste of the forbidden. They are afraid to trust God for power to overcome because they are not really sure they want out. It is too enticing! They don’t want to grieve the Lord or turn their backs on his love. They want to be delivered, after a while. They want a halfway deliverance just in time. Too many today are afraid to turn it all over to the Lord because they still hunger after Satan’s alluring enticements. Satan always makes yielding so convenient, so simple, so easy.

Do you want power to bear up under all temptation? Do you want a way of escape? Then quit glorifying the devil! Stop thinking he can force you to sin. Simply commit the keeping of your faith unto God as a faithful Creator.