"God will bless you, if you don't give up when your faith is being tested. He will reward you with a glorious life, just as he rewards everyone who loves him. Don't blame God when you are tempted! God cannot be tempted by evil, and he doesn't use evil to tempt others. We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead. Don't be fooled, my dear friends. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing. He wanted us to be his own special people, and so he sent the true message to give us new birth."
Well, thank goodness for this good news, huh?
Are you tempted by anything?
Of course you are.
This passage from the Bible says you are.
But, what do you do with it?
What are you doing with it right now?
What if I told you I was tempted today?
Tempted by food. Ice cream. Cheetos. Cookies. Strawberries. Popcorn.
Did I eat some of these things? Yes.
What if I told you I was tempted by bad thoughts about someone?
Would you think bad thoughts about me?
What if I told you I was a gossip today?
Were you?
I recently found some notes Chad took on a sermon from last March. At the bottom of the notes he wrote, "to avoid temptation- we need to be more decisive early."
Hmm... makes sense.
I need to make more of a conscience effort to say, "I'm going to not participate in that kind of conversation today." Does that mean I need to pull away from certain people?
Maybe.
Will that make me a better person?
Probably.
Or, "I'm not going to eat ___ today."
It might make me skinnier, too!
Sometimes temptations are so hard to avoid.
Like the conversation I just had with Chad- "I'm driving by Sonic. Want me to get something?"
Dang.
Temptation=1. Me=0.
Try again tomorrow.
______________________
On another note, it's so tempting to write things about my kids on every blog post. So, I'm giving in once again (geez, what kind of person have I become!) and showing you our favorite 7 year old and the big hole in her mouth!
3 comments:
Were you in my life yesterday following me around?!?!
I was so tempted!
It made for a long "pillow-talk" at bedtime.
Today will be better
No, she was with me yesterday. And now I feel guilty. :(
That's the thing about being a Christian. No one is ever perfect. We TRY to be Christ-like, but we will always fail.
Nonetheless, we serve a forgiving God! He will always love us, no matter how many times we fail and give into temptation. He is so good!
About the Sonic thing... Every few weeks I impose a "necessity only" week. I will buy NOTHING that's not a necessity. No fast food, no treats at the store, no sonic happy hour... It's good to put things back in check occasionally.
p.s. No one could ever get sick of seeing your beautiful kids!
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