Page 33 - First Steps 2023

3. How to battle temptation.
For some new Jesus-followers, there comes a major Moment of
Temptation that rattles them so hard they give up and walk away. They

become casualties in an ongoing battle to confront temptation.
The battle is deadly serious, and fought on two fronts.
Here’s how one Bible writer describes the struggle:

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God
cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each per-
son is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire

and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:13 15).

• The first battleground is the mind.
You find yourself enticed by an evil desire—let’s say lust. You begin
thinking about the person you desire…dwelling on thoughts of the two of
you together.
And that’s where, with the power of God, you could stop the sin cold.
While you may not be able to control an initial attraction, you can

control what and who you think about…what websites you visit…where
you allow your imagination to take you.
The first—and easiest—place to battle temptation is always at the
“evil-desire” stage.

• The second battleground is with sinful actions.
Sinful thoughts become “full-grown” sin when they become actions.

Thoughts become deeds that can result in the death of integrity, rela-
tionships, psychological well-being, and even in physical death.
Consider this example of how temptation—left unchallenged—can
play out:

• How temptation spirals into sin.
A businessman at a conference—a married disciple—finds him-

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