Temptations are desires to perform an act, an action that at this moment is pleasurable but in the long term can be detrimental to your life: legal, healthy, psychological. It is associated with seduction and provocation.
Temptations are an inclination to sin. It is the provocation or incitement on the part of the enemy to obey or not to obey, to accept or not to accept, to do or not to do, to say or not to say.
Santiago 1:12
12 Blessed is he who resists temptation because, when he is approved, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
There is a story that our Savior experienced some moments of temptation provoked by the enemy to show his allegiance to his Father our God.
After Jesus Christ was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, he was led to the desert by the Holy Spirit to meditate alone. He had a time of 40 days and 40 nights without eating anything and praying to purify himself.
At that moment he began to feel hungry and the enemy appeared with the intention of tempting him in that moment of weakness saying:
- Enemy: if it is true that you are a child of God, turn this stone into bread and eat. If you do, I will obey you, I will follow you and I will recognize you.
- Jesus Christ: written this not only man will live the bread, but the word that God says and offers more sustenance than any other dish, since they are food for the soul and not for the body.
And so Jesus Christ did not fall into temptation thanks to the strength that our God brings to each of the lives of those who accept him heart and soul.
Matthew 26:41
41 Be attentive and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
Temptation is a sin?
We must be clear that temptation is not a sin, Temptation is the anticipation of sin and sin is approval, permission to make temptation. So sin is not the same as being tempted. All sin is preceded by a Temptation, but not all Temptations end in sin.
All temptations are tests placed by God, which allow us to give ourselves the opportunity to increase the merits and thus find salvation and the path to the eternal life promised by God. No human being is tempted beyond the strength that God provides to resist. If your life belongs to God, do not open temptations that can overcome it.
Santiago 1:13
13 Let no one, when tempted, say, "It is God who tempts me." Because God can not be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.
When we are victims of a situation of temptation we must be fully sure that no matter what the trial, the gravity, the insistence on all these temptations, God accompanies us to overcome the enemy. The enemy is like a tied dog can bark at us but if we do not get close he will not bite us.
We must always be attentive to all the Temptations that will appear to us daily in our lives, we must always be in prayer for God to help us escape and overcome these trials.
The Temptations will not disappear instantly, the enemy will always follow and continue, in this case we have to redouble vigilance and prayer. If the Temptation is rejected several times, the enemy will retreat but not forever, looking for another moment and another way to return to the Temptation.
Luke 4: 3
13 And when the devil had put an end to all temptation, he departed from him for a time.
Since God created the commandments he always kept in mind that the Temptations were bad and destructive that is why he left us these laws to be fulfilled:
- You will not steal.
- Thou shalt not commit impure acts.
- You will not covet your neighbor's wife.
The Temptations will always be there, but if God is the chifer of your life you will know and you will be able to recap them, trust fully in God and he will eliminate them from your life.
Proverbs 6: 25-29
25 Do not covet your beauty in your heart,
Do not let her catch you with her eyes;
26 For because of the harlot woman a man is reduced to a morsel of bread;
And the woman hunts the man's beautiful soul.
27 Will man take fire in his bosom
Without his clothes burning?
28 Will man walk on coals
Without your feet burning?
29 So it is that which comes to the wife of his neighbor;
No one who touches her will be unpunished.
Until next time God bless you. Hugs!!
