Day Twenty Seven

Day 27

Defeating Temptation

Defeating temptation after so many years of enjoying it was no easy task. Recognizing it as a temptation and not just a way of life was the first step for me. When you have become so a custom to doing things as a normal part of life and then all of a sudden making changes in your life and deciding that there are things in your life that you don’t want in it any more, all of a sudden, you are faced with decisions that you hadn’t had to deal with in the past. Should I or shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I? Is this really not ok anymore? Will this be ok or will this lead me into something that will take me down a path that will lead me into something else I don’t want to get involved in anymore? What about these friends? Do I have to give them up too? Soon I have found myself having to make a whole lot of choices that were very difficult to decide on. Decisions that left me in situations that left me feeling very uncomfortable. Usually situations that left me all alone because it was usually a decision that meant letting go of friends that were not good for me. I was never a person that dealt well with loneliness. A low self image and low self esteem I needed others around me to feel good about myself. Surrounding myself with people and doing things to please them was one way I got the attention I needed and doing things for others whether it was the right things or the things that made them happy right or wrong didn’t matter as long as everyone got what they wanted or needed, I always looked like the GOOD GUY and therefore got the attention I wanted and needed to feel good about myself. So what if I let my morals or my character fall by the wayside in the meantime. This was the first step I had to take when I came to the point in my life that I wanted to serve God instead of my own self and my own needs. Letting go of others and saying yes to God’s ways for my life was the hardest part of defeating the temptations in my life. Removing the reasons that made me fall into sin was one of the hardest things for me to get used to doing. What did this accomplish in the mean time? It gave me “alone time with God”. The more the PEOPLE were out of my life, the more time I had to rely on God to fill in the missing pieces I was lacking in my life. The emptiness in my home, the quietness in my home, the lack of the constant telephone ringing and late night visitors. But also the less I was putting myself at risk. The more I was focusing on what God wanted, the less I was putting myself in harms way with everyone, with every strange I was meeting. And possibly allowing myself to be taken advantaged of. So there were benefits in listening to God and resisting the temptations that I so often would give into.

But what would I do when I just couldn’t take the loneliness that I was left with? Who could I talk to when I was depressed and or lonely? Over the years of making few friends that I could trust, there were very few friends that I could go to. But with less than fingers on one hand, I do have a few that no matter what it is I am feeling, I do have some that I can go to that do know all there is to know about me inside and out. Friends that know all there is to know about me and still love me. Friends that no matter what I say, when I say it, how I say it, will always be there for me. I couldn’t trade these people in for all the money in the world. If you don’t have someone like this in your life, I bet your life might be rather hard for you at times. Someone in your life needs to know everything about you. Because although God know all, you can’t see or hear Him, and there has to be someone whom you can sit down with and verbalize your feelings to and get understanding from. Who will listen to you when you are going thru a struggle, when you are at your wits end with a problem, and when you just need someone to be there for you.

Defeating your temptations in your life also requires that you have ammunition, God’s word hidden in your heart and mind, something to say back to those voices in your head that are telling you to do things at a moments notice. If you have nothing to fight with, how can you win? You have to be able to recognize a lie when you hear it other wise you won’t know you are being misled down the wrong path or that you are being led to do something that goes against God’s word. The enemy is far too sneaky to just come right out and lie completely to you. It will always sound true up until the very last word. And if you are not on your complete guard, you will miss that very last word and be thrown for a loop before you even realize you are in a spin that you can’t get out of because by the time you realize it, you are probably feeling to good. And once the pleasure of the sin takes over, you’re gone. Once the pleasure of the sin is in your mind, you are more than half way gone. The moment the sin is introduced you need God’s word to defeat that lie right from the start. Knowing all this is one thing, having the willingness to act on it is another. Anyone can say they want to be sin free. Anyone can say they want the defeat temptation in their lives. But where and how much are you willing depends on you everyday. It is always a choice, not a right. A choice to say I have hidden His word in my heart Just in Case. I will stay away from here, just in case. I will remember to reach out to my friends when this happens, just in case. No one can do it all alone. But just in case you are all alone, God is always there when you are, and He promised that HE would always plan a way out, just in case. It’s up to you, to me, to believe that there is always a way out. That we are never alone in our temptations, they are just Gods way of saying I am trusting in you today one more time to show me how much you love me. Will you love me today one more time?