The Power to Overcome TemptationSample

Call on God in the Face of Temptation

“Call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you.” Psalm 50:15 (NLT)

Sometimes you’re going to need an “emergency plan” for temptation. When you get in a situation where you’re tempted and you don’t know what to do, you need to cry out to God.

If you’re facing a temptation and you start to panic because you feel the adrenaline rushing through your body, then you won’t have time for a long conversation with God.

Instead, you can just do what I call a “microwave prayer,” and it’s one word: Help! You tell God, “This is not where I want to be right now, and I’m about to step across the line. I need your help right now.”

Of course, he knows what’s going on. So, when all you can do is cry out for help, God will hear your prayer, and he will intervene.

You can know he will help you because the Bible says, “Call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you” (Psalm 50:15 NLT).

Cry out to God. When you do, he helps you because he’s sympathetic to your situation. The Bible says, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NLT).

Did Jesus ever struggle with anger? Yes. Did Jesus ever wrestle with loneliness? Yes. Did Jesus ever deal with sex and sexuality? Yes. Was he ever tempted by fatigue and discouragement? Yes. How? Because even though he’s God, he was God in a fully human body. Jesus became a man and experienced everything we would so that he could intercede for us before God.

Jesus faced the same temptations we do, so we can expect him to help us when we cry out to him. And we don’t have to feel shame because his grace sustains us: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT).

That is a great comfort—and it is the power to change. Just tell God you need his help!

This devotional © 2024 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.