Avoiding Temptation

Richard Thetford

Oh how much easier our Christian walk would be if there was not any temptation confronting us that we had to deal with. In James 1:14 we read "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." Temptation is an enticement that appears so appetizing to us that often times we get carried away with it and give into it. Is God tempting us? We read in James 1:13 that "God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone". So who is tempting us? Satan is the one that puts those "dangling carrots" in front of us so that we will give in and turn from God (1 Corinthians 7:5; Mark 1:13) . Life is a test of our endurance and we will prevail if we can overcome temptation. We are tempted through the lust of our eyes (1 John 2:16), through the lust of the flesh (James 1:14), through the pride of life (1 John 2:16), and through our own covetousness as we can see in 1 Timothy 6:9.

How Do We Avoid Temptations?

There are ways that we can avoid temptations. First of all, we are more easily tempted when we leave God out of our lives and think that we can do everything on our own without Him. We need to be godly as Peter emphasizes in 2 Peter 2:9. In addition, we can further avoid these temptations by not giving Satan an advantage (1 Corinthians 7:5), through consideration (Galatians 6:1), by prayer (Matthew 6:13; Luke 22:40), by taking the way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), by watching (Mark 14:38) and of course by allowing Christ to help in our life (Hebrews 2:18). Remember, temptations are set before us to test us. Are we passing the test?