Thursday, March 10, 2016

Dealing With Temptation (Mt. 18:8-9)

Deal with temptation suddenly, severely and seriously.

Why such immediate, radical behavior?  Temptation leads to sin, sin leads to a sinful lifestyle and bondage, and a sinful lifestyle leads to death (separation from God's presence).


Observations:
  1. Start your fight at the temptation level, not sin level.  Minimize the stimuli.
  2. Maintain this fight against temptation because you love Jesus and want to please Him.  "I don't want to go to Hell" is a good but secondary motivation.
  3. Don't ask the Holy Spirit for help in temptation if you've taken no steps to help yourself.  Yes, He can help -- after all, He is called the Helper -- but it is your responsibility to "cut off."

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