You can have victory over temptation

You can have victory over temptation

      Temptation is common to man and temptation itself is not sin.  Here it is   important to remember God’s commitment to us as found in 1 Cor.10:13:

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;  and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.”

Whereas once we habitually entered into temptation, we can now habitually   take God’s promised way of escape.

      Jesus exemplified what it means to take the way of escape when He wastempted in the wilderness.  He was tempted to turn the stones into bread and    thereby meet His own needs His own way, rather than trusting the Father to      meet them.

      His immediate response to temptation was to submit to the Father’s will byredirecting His thoughts to what was true rather than how He felt.  He       answered the tempter by saying, “It is written…”

      In the same way, the moment the Holy Spirit alerts us to wrong thinking, we  can choose to submit our will to God’s and redirect our thoughts to what is       true, rather than how we feel.  Often there will be a momentary resistance       to submit our will to God’s because of man’s natural tendency to exert his       own will.  “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. But afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”   (Heb.12:1). It is interesting to note that it was after Jesus submitted to       God’s word that the angels came and ministered to Him. 

	“All we do is throw the switch by saying ‘No’ to wrong thoughts and ‘yes’ to  right ones. And the energy from His enormous source of power flows through  us and energizes us to do the very thing we want to do and that He wants us to  do.” Dr. George Sanchez