While looking for a recipe to cook a venison roast, I found a recipe for fried frog legs. It began, “Make sure the frog has stopped kicking and is dead. If necessary, whack it on the head with a heavy stick.” Alllrighty then!
As Christians, we wrestle with temptation and sin every day. Only through the blood of Jesus can we get victory over sin. We are all tempted; there is no shame or guilt in temptation! Only through Christ are those sins conquered.
Once we ask Jesus into our heart, sin has no control over us, unless we let it. The way we keep sin out of our life is to be diligent through Christ. Don’t deny sin or say it isn’t really tempting; if ‘this’ comes to mind then we are still being tempted!
Ignoring temptation does not make it go away. Where we mess up is when we fail to deal with the temptation. A physical/mental/emotional action must be made the moment the temptation happens. The first thing we must do is make sure the sin is dead—-by asking Jesus to forgive us.
If the temptation keeps kicking, whack it in the head with the heavy stick of God’s word. Use a concordance to find scriptures that apply to this temptation—memorize them—and use as necessary.
There’s no way in our “self” that we can win over temptation. Only through the continuing study of God’s Word and an intimate relationship with Jesus can we resist the wiles of the devil. When sin ‘kicks’, whack it with the heavy stick of God’s Word.
Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
The Holy Bible, New International Version®. Pradis Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, © 1973, 1978, 1984.