Choosing Not to Yield to Temptation (TMF:1275)

Friday, January 03, 2020
Peace to Live By: Choosing Not to Yield to Temptation (TMF:1275) - Daniel Litton
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       The next sentence in our Lord’s prayer reads, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Okay, so what does Jesus mean by “lead us not into temptation.” There are actually three avenues of temptation that I want us to think about today. First, turn over to James chapter 1. If we go to verse 13, we read the following: “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 1:13-15, ESV). So, James, very poignantly, gives us some keen understanding here. We have discussed many times how we all, as humans, have the sin-nature within us. We are born with it, and we will have it until the day we die. Now, the unbeliever has no freedom to choose not to sin, while the believer, by God’s power and the fact he is a new creation, does have the freedom not to sin.