"We're always making a decision to give up something that we value less for something we value more." Paul Richard, President, Consumer Financial Education Institute
Have you noticed grocery stores put staples like milk and eggs at the back so we have to go through the store to get them?
To avoid temptation, we can go prepared with a list and keep our eyes straight ahead instead of glancing at the aisles of temptation along the way.
Satan employs this tactic too. He lines our life path with costly choices and distractions: immoral sex, selfishness, fear, anger, resentment, envy, etc.
He'd like to divert, delay, or derail us, making us spend all we have before we reach God's goals for our lives.
To avoid temptation, we can do the Proverbs 4 walk: "Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet.…" Proverbs 4:25-26
What are some practical ways you walk in the Proverbs 4 path?
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Some helpful truths about temptation:
God always provides a way out. Let’s take it!
1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."
It’s all a matter of whom we submit to, God or Satan.
James 4:7: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
When we give in to temptation, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
James 1:14: "Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away."
It is terribly difficult to "fix your gaze" when there are so many distractions around us. Too many things demanding our attention that pull us away from the path laid out for us. One practical way that I have found that helps me... turn off the TV and limit social networking time. It was difficult to do at first but the more I practiced it, the more I found myself thinking of godly things. It just happened naturally because my mind became much less cluttered!
ReplyDeleteJoanne, I began my year that way and have stuck with it so far. And you are absolutely correct. I'm close to God than I've ever been!
DeleteI wholeheartedly agree with you on that. Í gave up social networking and even people that were in the way of my inner spiritual peace and God's word. Í feel free and I have indeed found peace.
DeleteOne verse that's really resonated with me today, Psalm 27:4 reads, "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple." If we delight in the Lord with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, and all our strength by His grace and ask Him for our daily bread, knowing He knows our every need before we ask and is a good Father who provides more than sufficiently for them all, then we can be satisfied with the good food He gives us whether that is friendship, encouragement, or just a good word like this one at the right time, and we won't get distracted as easily. At least, that's how God's really been fixing my eyes on Him lately.
ReplyDeleteHave a blessed rest of the day!