The Battle

As I jump back into regular blogging, today I thought would be a good day to challenge us all. This is for kids and adults alike. :)

Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all VERY stubborn. What do I mean? One word:
Temptation.
Temptation is a thing we all have problems with. And I’m not just talking about whether or not you’re going to grab a piece of chocolate cake when your mother told you not to. I’m talking about ALL temptations, the ones that we ALL give in to, basically ALL the time. :)

For example:
Your friends are having an ice skating party and have invited you along. But, there’s a problem. None of the people going use very good language, don’t dress modestly, etc. You think: “Oh, well, God wants me to witness to them, right?” But you have a feeling in the pit of your stomach saying “don’t go, you’ll regret it.”
In the back of your mind you think, “well, then again…” but you don’t listen. You don’t ask for God’s advice, you just plow ahead.
Guess what… That party doesn’t go too well. And you never were strong enough to witness to them.

Or:
Your friends are raving about this new book and want you to read it. You think: “Well, I don’t see any harm in reading it.” But a red flag goes up and says: Remember, you’re supposed to be a good example! Is the book glorifying to God in ANY way???

But you don’t listen because you either really want to read it or just want to fit in with everybody else.

Or it could be something about your faith. You read a verse in the Bible and know it means something important and you’ve been struggling in that area lately. The enemy tells you to ignore it or makes you think it means something different than what God intended it to be.

Or… you’re struggling with money, the economy. Things aren’t going so well. You know you should trust God, but don’t see how.

These situations are, to me, known as The Battles. And we don’t want to overcome them for fear of either not fitting in, missing out on a chance of “fun,” or just plain stubbornness. But God can easily overcome temptations if we really let Him take control of things in our lives.

Sometimes temptations take a roll in our lives because we forget who we were made to be: Followers of Christ.

Now, I know that at some point in your life you have heard or read “Jesus should be our example” or you’ve probably seen the bracelets that have WWJD on them. But do you really ask yourself this?

Well, even Jesus was tempted by Satan.
But guess what. He was well equipped and was able to overcome Satan’s poking and prodding.

Yes, He’s Jesus (He's God), but I think one reason why God allowed for Satan to tempt Jesus is because: through Jesus and that story we can know how to resist the devil. How? One way is to memorize Scripture and engrave God’s words in your heart. Another way is (I do this a lot) to ignore the devil and let God talk you through the temptation… or trial.
I can’t get rid of them… you can’t get rid of them…
We live in a sin-filled, temptation-filled world.

But God can help you resist temptation and come out stronger on the other side. :)