Wayne Weekly “The Temptation Window”

I t came on unexpectedly. Right before me a window perhaps three feet wide by five feet high gave clear view of an area that boasted row after row of some of the most irresistible temptations a person can be enticed by.

I wasn’t seeking out this display of enticement. I only turned my head and there it was. The attraction appealed immediately to my base nature. I quickly turned away only to be drawn back by my own desires to peer on its alluring exhibition. I knew I had to fight back. I knew that I’ve been led down this road of compulsion before. I struggled to look away. It was decision time. I caved in.

In a matter of seconds I was inserting a credit card and pressing Q9 . A bag of calorie filled Cheez-Its tumbled down into the retrieval bin.

Well, certainly this temptation was far, far less serious than some I have encountered throughout my life. The results of caving in to this urge has little or no serious repercussions. Not so with other temptations that we all can be assaulted by.

James explains our trials and temptations this way:

“but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”      James 1:14

I recall a pastor of mine telling us in a Sunday morning message, “I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t run away from danger”. Plain and simple, “flee”.

Temptation assaults are not sin, not fighting them off and certainly caving in to them, is. Often we entertain sin’s temptations, weakening our will, bating our sinful desires.

The snack machine cave in was, comparatively speaking, pretty harmless. The craving was real, my appetite was eventually fulfilled. The long term results, probably almost null. But the same impulses are brought into motion with any temptation we face. The difference is what it results in…and most assuredly it is more than a tummy full of unneeded calories and sodium.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”                                                                                                           James 1:12-15