No matter what I did, I felt like I couldn’t escape the temptation to sin. I was caught in a very self-destructive sin. I knew I needed to find a way out, but I couldn’t do it by myself. Everyone has that one sin that seems like they can’t get rid of. It could be lust, gossip, idolatry; the list goes on. The temptation to sin is a part of life. Even Jesus had to deal with temptation, so how do we fight it and actually succeed?
First, let’s look at Jesus’ temptation. Mathew 4:1-11 talks about when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Jesus had been led by the spirit to go fast and pray for forty days. Then the devil appears to Jesus and tempts Him three different times. First by telling Jesus to turn stones into bread, then by telling Him to test God, and finally asking Jesus to bow down to Satan in return for all the kingdoms of the world. Each time Jesus refuses.
What’s interesting when we look at this passage is the fact that Jesus only responds to temptation with scripture. Jesus knew the law by heart; every Jewish man did. And because Jesus knew scripture so well, it was easy for Him to recognize temptation and reject it. If you are rooted in the Word, your mind will always go to scripture first, but you have to train your mind to think like that. If your fight against temptation was solely based on how much scripture you know, how well would you do?
People often say to flee from temptation, and this isn’t exactly wrong. You should avoid anything that could cause you to stumble, but when temptation does come your way, you need to be able to fight it. Our sword to fight temptation with is the word of God. Resist the devil and the devil will flee from you just like he fled from Jesus.
Now it’s also important to keep in mind that in order to leave something like sin behind, you must make sacrifices. For example, to leave behind the sin of lust you might have to stop using certain social media platforms. Or to leave behind gossiping, you might have to surround yourself with different people who don’t encourage gossip.
One final warning, anytime you try to leave a sin behind that has been so prominent in your life, Satan won’t want to let you go. That sin is his way to separate you from God, so he will do everything he can to keep you tethered to that sin. When you try to cut out a sin in your life it’s going to feel good for a little bit, but then it will get a lot harder than it ever was before. That’s when you need to pray and cling to God’s word stronger than you ever have before.