Temptations have come in like a flood!
.
They always do!
Growing up near a river and the beach taught me a valuable lesson, water always wins! Water invades space with the same persistent power that a weed uses to split concrete and rise up in the tiniest of all cracks.
Temptations are all the same. They are real! They are persistent! They are powerful!
Anyone who under-estimates the power of temptation is foolish.
Temptation is Sin dressed up for The Inaugural Ball. She is so beautiful as she flirts and entices the crowd. While many may resist her charm, all she wants it just one person to swoon over her and become her publicist. Then that person will begin to escort victim after victim into her open arms and reassuringly soft and warm caresses.
Once she has you in her arms, she turns a deaf ear to your kind-hearted pleas that she leave you.
Evil never surrenders its grasp without a tremendous fight. Satan is not put to flight by our courteous requests. (1)
There is only one way to safely escape rising water: flee to higher ground. Sandbags and restraining walls only hold back water that does not crest above their reach. Many people have drowned behind a wall not built high enough.
Temptation’s twin, The Evil One, will try to convince you that a wall of self-determination will keep the rising temptation at bay. It never happens.
This is why Jesus taught us to pray to God:
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (2)
It’s The Evil One who tells us that giving into temptation will not harm us. He is the one who grabs your heel and holds you to the lower ground. You need deliverance from him.
In addition to Jesus’ prayer, I have found it best to to high-tail it to higher ground when temptations are rising like a flood.
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- Reimann, Jim; Cowman, Mrs. Charles E. Streams in the Desert (p. 98). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
- The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Matthew 6:13.
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