Temptation

Temptation is something we all face. James 1:14-15 (KJV) says, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." We need to take these verse into consideration when we are tempted.

Firstly, it says that every man is tempted. Temptation in itself is not a sin, but acting on temptation is. It's perfectly okay to like your friend's new CD, but once you covet it, then you're sinning.

This all goes back to yesterday about making compromises. You'll be tempted to do something, then you'll make a compromise. You'll say in your mind, "If I only do it once, it won't hurt anyone." But then, BAM!, you've started sinning. Only doing it one time will lead to moving on to more "severe" types of that action. For instance, if it's drugs, you may start out just hanging out with the people who do drugs, then one time decide it will be okay to just take one hit of the joint your friends are smoking. Next thing you know, you'll move on to actually buying the drugs, and even move on to harder drugs.

We watched a video in the teen class last night about courage. One of the stories of one of the guys was one similar to the situation I described. Once he got into middle school, all of his friends from elementary schools had gone to different school, so he started hanging out with new people. It was then in 8th grade when he first tried marijuana with the guys he was hanging out with. It was supposed to be "a part of what everyone else was doing." However, he made a compromise in order to hang out with the people he had in his life and ended up paying the price. The story has a happy ending, however. When this guy moved on to harder drugs on a more regular basis, that was when his parents noticed. They sent him to a Christian camp for a week, where he wouldn't have access to drugs, but just be able to spend time in fellowship with other teens and spend time with God. He said that it was at that camp where he felt that God was there. He knew then that God could carry him through his struggles and all he had to do was trust Him.

I urge you to apply these situations to your life if you haven't already. Remain strong in the Lord, He will give you strength to be courageous. In fact, God commands us to be strong and courageous. God was talking to Joshua in Joshua 1:9 (KJV), "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." I am working on being more courageous, as God is always with me. I tend to forget that at times, but I need to constantly remember that He is there! He is ready for me to listen to what He has to say to me every day and He's waiting for me to come to Him and repent whenever I will fall into temptation because let's face it, I'm not perfect. None of us are perfect, but God's given us the gift of grace and He's bestowed that grace upon us through Jesus.