Steps to Overcome Temptation

This is the last blog entry on temptation and I hope you've learned a few tricks to help you better understand it and how it works. Here are three steps to overcoming temptation that have also helped me.

1. Refuse to be intimidated by temptation or demoralized that you keep facing the same one. I mentioned this in an earlier entry. I kept feeling like I was personally failing because the same temptations still bothered me. I was and still do occasionally give in, but I can't let that get me down. Temptation will always follow me. I just have to know myself enough to recognize the patterns and continuously walk in the Spirit, not my flesh so I have the power to overcome. If the presence of temptation gets me down, then I'm already defeated. It's ok to fight and I must not give up.

2. Recognize your personal pattern of temptation and be prepared for it. Certain situations make me more vulnerable to temptation than any others. Some circumstances will cause me to stumble almost immediately every time, while others won't bother me. Satan knows my triggers and so should I.

3. Ask for God's help. The Bible says, "Call on me in times of trouble and I will rescue you and you will honor me." God wants me to call on him for help and he wants to help me. Then I will give him the credit for helping me overcome and he will be honored through my temptation. Jesus understands all of our weaknesses because he personally experienced the same temptations that we face, yet he did not sin. This gives us the hope that we can also overcome any temptation we face. With God's help, we don't have to sin.

God doesn't get tired of us crying out over and over again. He doesn't get tired of us asking for help. He doesn't roll his eyes thinking, "When are you going get over this?" He made us and remembers we were made of dust. God's love is unfailing and unlike humans, he is patient and understanding. The Bible also says, "Let us approach the throne of God boldly where there is grace and mercy just when we need it." Temptation keeps us dependent on God and that's just where I want to stay.