“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind”
I Corinthians 10:13
What has tempted you recently? We just came out of the holidays, was food your struggle, or overextending yourself buying gifts? Or perhaps your temptations are more permanent than just an experience or two over the holidays. Maybe your trap is the temptation to feel fearful and anxious. Maybe your struggle is with procrastination, overuse of social media, laziness. Or perhaps your temptations come from a deeper inward struggle such as gossip, bitterness, or lust?
I Corinthians 10:13 tells us how common temptation is. Temptation is the thing the devil used when he first introduced himself to Adam and Eve in the garden. Obviously it worked. So why would he not keep using that strategy on the rest of the human race? Thus, after the devil’s victory in the garden, temptation became common to man.
Jesus himself was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. “Yes” you say, “but he knew his Father’s word well and could counter attack the devil with it. I don’t know the Bible well enough to go head to head with Satan.” While that may be true, when you read the Temptation of Christ, you realize that the devil did not make any effort to draw Christ into a scriptural or theological debate. His temptation was to snare Jesus into bringing the Kingdom into the world in a different way than was God’s plan.
Temptation does have its uses. As we grapple with it, we have opportunity to grow in our faith. Temptations can be a tool that will strengthen our relationship with Christ, as we lean on his Spirit to help us overcome them. As we grow spiritually, we find our temptations become more subtle. The battle with things like spiritual pride takes the place of the battle with dishonesty and lying.
So how do we overcome our temptations? We do it the same way Jesus Christ did in the wilderness, face to face with Satan. In the account of the Temptation in Luke chapter 4, we find something very interesting; something that is sometimes overlooked. Verse 1 of Luke 4 tells us that when Jesus was led into the wilderness, he was “full of the Holy Spirit.” However, at the end of the Temptation, verses 13 and 14 tell us “when the devil had finished all his tempting, he left him until an opportune time,” and “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.” Jesus entered into the wilderness indwelt with the Holy Spirit. He left the wilderness filled with all the power of the Holy Spirit. That same fullness of power is available to us by the same Spirit to overcome every temptation we face. Overcoming temptation rests in the Overcomer! Darlene