Overcoming Temptation

139:23-24
David’s prayer was for God to reveal to him his weakness. It does not take long to see that Paul was painfully aware of his own sinfulness and struggles. We must realize that we have areas of weakness and we need to be able to identify them so that we can begin to fix the problem.
I imagine that as Joseph found himself all alone with a woman who desired him it was a tempting situation to be in. If he would have given in, who would have ever known? I imagine he must have been tempted to do what was right, but yet still he refused to do what was wrong because he did not want to sin against God. He had integrity. He was able to withstand the temptations that he had. There are going to be times in our lives that we are faced with tempting situations. We need to be able to recognize those moments and those areas of weakness and we need to be able to do our best to stay strong. We need to realize our own weakness and sinfulness so that we can better address the problem and overcome our temptations.
It is not wrong to face temptations in life. In fact we will all face them from time to time because there is a real Devil trying to get us to sin, but our goal needs to be to overcome and not give in.

II. Make Conscious Efforts to Stand Strong
I believe that God is very active in helping us to overcome temptations, but I believe a lot of times we are guilty of not taking any initiative on our own. We like to sit back and let God handle it. We say we need to have faith and wait on the Lord, and those things are true, Biblical facts in dealing with any aspect of life. We cannot overcome apart from God, but I also believe we cannot overcome unless we are willing. Sometimes we pray for God’s help with our temptations, and we should do that. In the Lord ’s Prayer Jesus taught to pray, “deliver us from evil.” However, we do not sit and wait for God to miraculously remove any temptation or struggle we have in our lives. Doctors say an alcoholic can never recover if he first does not want to help himself, and the same is true with us who are addicted to sin, by the way that is all of us. If we are serious about pleasing God and serious about overcoming temptations we need to make some conscious efforts before temptation ever comes, while it is with us, and after we have overcome. I do not believe that we just one day overcome all of our struggles, but I believe we need to make some effort to overcome ourselves.

a. Consciously Reading The Word of God
When we talk about the ways to stand strong against temptation we must begin by talking about the power that is the Word of God. I believe that by knowing the Word of God and by having a regular diet of God’s Word we are better able to withstand temptations. On the other hand not regularly reading the Word is like going into a battle against a fierce enemy without a weapon.
Ephesians 6:10-17
We learn many times in the Word of God that we are in a spiritual battle, and that our weapon is the Word of God. If we do not know the Word we become susceptible to temptations. Jesus was able to withstand temptations because he knew the Word of God. David said, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against God.” I think that perhaps the greatest tragedy that exists in the world today is the failure of God’s people to pick up the Word of God and