Do you ever feel like you’re constantly bombarded with temptation? I sometimes wonder if that’s how Jesus felt in the desert. I was reading about His temptation the other day in Luke 4:1-13. Here are a few lessons I learned:
1. Expect to be tempted at the beginning of a new pursuit or a new stage of life.
It’s not surprising that Jesus was tempted right at the beginning of His public ministry. After all, Satan wasn’t crazy about His mission.
He may not be crazy about your mission, either. If he isn’t, expect opposition. Even without opposition, new endeavors can be difficult. Why? Because each time we begin something new, we get a whole new set of temptations.
In a sense, we need to learn how to live as Christians in each new stage of life. For some reason, this is comforting to me. When I began this blog, I was bombarded by temptation.
At the time I was surprised and a bit overwhelmed. But looking back, I can see that it wasn’t surprising. It was a new pursuit, with a new set of temptations. I needed to learn to live as a Christian blogger.
You may be starting college, marriage, a new job, a new goal, or a new phase of life such as retirement. Don’t beat yourself up if you’re struggling. Jesus struggled. And He was perfect.
Journal Question: Look at 10 Temptations of Christian Bloggers. If you were to make a list like this for your current stage of life, what temptations would you put on the list?
2. Expect to be tempted at opportune times.
After Satan finished tempting Jesus, he left until an opportune time (Luke 4:13). He does the same for us.
He’ll attack during weak moments. After we’ve just failed in some way. When everything else is going wrong. Or at the end of the day or the end of a trip, when we’re tired of fighting temptation.
If we want to be victorious, we need to be prepared.
Journal Questions: Think of the day or week ahead. When will you be most tempted to give into temptation? What could you do to renew your mind right before that time?
3. When temptation comes, fight lies with truth.
When Jesus was tempted, He didn’t say, “Father, help me!” and then get mad when God didn’t answer His prayer. Instead, He took the initiative Himself. He entered the desert full of the Holy Spirit, and He answered each temptation with the Word of God.
That would be like us starting each day with a nice long quiet time and having Bible verses at the ready to help us fight our most common temptations.
If you think you don’t have time for all this, think about how often Jesus went off by Himself for time with God even though He was overwhelmed by people who wanted His attention.
Challenge: Make a renewing of the mind project of your biggest temptation OR (here’s a less intimidating challenge) list five lies Satan commonly feeds you. Find five Bible verses to combat those lies. Write them on index cards and carry them with you to use whenever you’re tempted.
Discussion: When are you most likely to be tempted?
“When Jesus was tempted he didn’t pray God help me and then get mad…” Wow this describes me! I have my truth cards ready but I havent used them consistently to fight off temptation. I need to start using my weapons effectively! Thanks for the post. I will still keep pluggin away at this. Temptation strikes late in the day and in the middle of night when I’m at my weakest of course!
For me it’s different times for different temptations. Late afternoon for food. And the middle of the night for worrying about what people think. Ironically, I had a terrible time after I posted this blog post. I was up truth journaling in the middle of the night again! I’ll pray that you use your truth cards today. :)
Great advice, Barb. I have a discipline in that I do my Bible studies before allowing myself to write, but that list is tough! How easy it is to get tempted! I also quit checking stats almost a year ago. Usually in life the best way to measure is never by a number. The greatest value we have in can’t be measured by counting… unless we’re counting on God.
Ha – that’s a great way to look at counting – counting on God. I love that. I check my stats every two weeks. I love this boundary as it’s often enough to satisfy my curiosity, but not often enough to bother me emotionally. I like your never checking them habit, too, though. I also have my morning Bible study before I write, but that’s not too hard since I’m not crazy about writing! :)
As usual Barb, God gave you the words to describe something that I have been struggling to find a way to say to myself!
“If you think you don’t have time for all this…….”
This has been my struggle, my fight to explain to myslef over and over- that if I don’t have time for all this, then I am failing at my goal to seek Him first in all things! I fail to make Him my first priority then, period! I do have time for all this!
And I loved this-
“1. Expect to be tempted at the beginning of a new pursuit or a new stage of life.
It’s not surprising that Jesus was tempted right at the beginning of His public ministry. After all, Satan wasn’t crazy about His mission.
He may not be crazy about your mission, either. If he isn’t, expect opposition. Even without opposition, new endeavors can be difficult. Why? Because each time we begin something new, we get a whole new set of temptations.”
WOW! This is exactly what has been happening in my life and again, I had all of the frustration over it, from it, but could not pin-point or express it in words that made sense to me! To help me work through it! God gave you the words I really really needed to hear!
Thank You Barb for staying true to Him! You help us all! (((HUGS)))
Thank you so much for your encouragement, Elizabeth. It is especially encouraging to me as I had a terrible time last night after I published this post. Was feeling very attacked in the middle of the night. I followed my own advice and listed the five lies Satan regularly feeds me about blogging and then looked up some good Bible verses for them, and also truth journaled. I have some renewing of the mind Bible verses on my blog that might be helpful if you struggle with not having enough time – here’s the link for them: https://barbraveling.com/2013/01/16/renewing-of-the-mind-bible-verses/. They’re not specifically for the time issue, but you might find something helpful there. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate you, Elizabeth!
Wonderful thoughts Barb. I really identify with # 1. When we moved to the States two years ago, I did not anticipate the changes and turns we’ve encountered. For the longest time, I tried to do things without the “new levels – new temptations” revelation. So i was hard on myself, others, circumstances. I have not arrived but am a better place …thanks for this reminder and putting it so well.
As far as writing is concerned, am most tempted when am doing final edits of posts, mostly Saturdays and Wednesdays. As well as end of the week when am looking at how much progress I’ve made on my book and talks within the week.
It’s hard to hit a perfect (not even near perfect!) score every time and am learning to let things be. I remind myself that who I am in Christ and His plans for my life and the most important things to me.
I am still a huge work in progress, wishing i was more mature in these areas and not easily swayed :) But am glad am not where I used to be!
Thanks for these reminders today.
That would be really interesting moving to a new country. I bet it was an incredible growing experience and such an advantage to really get to know two cultures well and be able to compare them. I am also getting better with writing. Not half as bad as I used to be with final edits of posts, but still bad at times. I love only doing one post a week as it gives me so much more time to write. I think I’m going to finish my book next week! Then to see what to do next.
Recently God has been bringing me to this passage of Jesus’ temptation over and over. We can learn so much by reading the Bible and applying it to our lives.
You have some excellent points.
#1 really hit home with me. I can see how that has been true in my past and can see it occurring in my life right now.
Thanks for another great post. Your questions really help open people’s eyes.
Thanks, TC. I keep reading this passage over and over, too. I think it’s one of the great gifts in the Bible – to see how Jesus handled temptation. Incredible.
When I’m overly tired or hungry is when I’m most weak and tempted. Something about being hungry that really causes me to have a “fight” type of attitude which can get me into trouble. Great post Barb!
Tired is a biggie for me as well – I hardly ever let myself get hungry!
I try not to let myself get hungry or too tired but sometimes it just happens.
Dan, I couldn’t agree more! I have a tough time if it’s been more than 4 or 5 hours since I last ate. I’m such a wimp when it comes to food!
Barb, you’re so right about being tempted at the start of new things. I would also add that often temptation is a big factor after we have been doing something for awhile and feel like everything is going along well. Maybe that would be what you identified as an opportune time. I know that in my life I have a tendency to let my guard down and gain a false sense of security when things are going well.
That’s a great point, Caleb. I’ve definitely noticed that with myself, as well. Once I get to the point where the habit no longer controls me, I feel like I can relax my boundaries. Which is true, in a sense – I can relax them without going back into bondage because my thinking has changed enough by that point. But still – my life is better with boundaries, and there’s always a chance I could go back to my old ways.
Barb can I share this on my blog? Can I have permission to copy and paste this AND link it to you here? The reason I feel strongly about the copy/paste is so I can highlight what touched me and share with my readers. I think they will be more likely to check you out if they read first what/why it touched me. Make sense? Thanks! (((HUGS)))
Sure, Elizabeth, that would be fine. I was going to ask you – have you gotten any comments on your blog from me? I’ve tried to comment before and it doesn’t seem like it goes through. I’ll try to comment on one of them again today to see if it works.
Yup I think they came through. There’s been a few I think! I saw todays! :o)
I copy/pasted and all your links came through. I ended up not highlighting because I have to re-type the parts I want highlighted and I’m just too busy to re-type ;o) ~ Mercy comes today for her next visit. Can’t remember if I told you about her? (((HUGS)))
No, I don’t think you did tell me about her – email me! Glad the comments are coming through – I didn’t think they were.
I find that temptation comes from the enemy when I’m getting close to God. I have certain vulnerabilities that he just loves to pick at. On the other hand, a lot of temptation comes from when I start to think more like the world. Being in the world AND of the world – that’s a recipe for temptation.
Yes, it is – that’s actually one of the things I look forward to about heaven – not having to deal with temptation any longer.
Barb, your posts are so insightful. Thank you! I loved the bloggers’ temptation post and tweeted it. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, Melanie. I appreciate that!
I am most likely to be tempted when I am tired and hungry. I do not make good decisions when one or the other is happening and especially not when both are happening together. So, I try to prevent both. I am learning to be more spontaneous and controlling in a lot of areas, but these areas are ones where planning & control need to exist. Yet, I am also aware of allowing God to work in these areas, which he did by using my struggles with them to minister to my son in similar struggles. Good post to help remind me of where I need to remain especially diligent.
A couple of others said the same thing, Kari – I guess that’s a common time to be tempted! It sounds like you have a great balance between planning for them and also allowing God to work when it doesn’t happen.