Do you ever get that feeling that you're the only one going through the stuff of your life? Like, never in the history of human kind, has anyone ever had to deal with what you're dealing with?
Yeah, I believe that lie too sometimes.
The fact is, as we saw last week, being tempted goes back all the way to the beginning. While the tools the enemy uses to tempt us may change over time, the temptation itself pretty much falls into one of three categories.
- Lust of the flesh
- Lust of the eyes
- Pride of life
You can check out Blake's message from this past Sunday for an education on what those three things are.
I'm more interested on how to deal with them.
How do I win those inevitable battles? How do I get the enemy to leave me alone for a while?
One of the amazing things that God did for us is to take on human form. Instead of this huge gap between God and man, he made a way for us to relate to him on a personal level. He took on the form of a fragile baby. He lived just as we have lived.
Parts of his life were recorded so that we could follow his example. So, when it comes to being tempted, what would Jesus do?
Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.
During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.