Advice For The Christian Girl

Let Me Not Fall Into Temptation (Part 2)

Matthew 6:13
ESV

13 And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

Temptation. It's everywhere and Jesus teaching His disciples this (which we are also) is very important. Jesus wouldn't include this if it wasn't.

The truth is we have an enemy and many enemies. The kingdom of darkness is constantly plotting, trapping and seeking us Christians because we carry light. Where light is, darkness has to flee. Darkness is crippled and disappears. It becomes powerless.

The kingdom of darkness then tries to keep their darkness for if our lights are dimmed they slowly become like the darkness. I think of a room. There is a main light and my phone. When the lights are on, there is no darkness (unless you count under the bed!).
Darkness has fled but when I close the lights I can't see light anymore. If I switch on my phone there will be light but dimmer compared to the main light shining.

When we are living for the glory of God, filled with the Holy Spirit and on fire for the Lord, we burning brightly but the kingdom of darkness constantly strives to get us to become lukewarm, backslide, and lose our fire for God and fall into sin. We would be bright like my lights but soon dimmer and dimmer like my phone and soon the light disappears because my phone won't be able to stand long. Then that's how the darkness has taken over.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13
ESV

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Here we are told to take heed. All because we are Christain or are on fire for God now doesn't mean that we can be invisible and immune to sin. Too many people who confidently say "Me? I could never fall into sin like so and so", are the ones who later down the years end up sometimes falling even worse. We shouldn't be overconfident that we would never lie, cheat, murder etc because that can make us lose our alarm. When we are aware we can fall into sin and that our lights can be easily dim by sin, we realise how weak we truly are without God. When we recongnise that we have a flesh we can sometimes submit to then we will be constantly one watch that we remain switched fully on and not be dimmed.

We will check and make sure our lights are not dimming. We will constantly examine our days and check our hearts. We will desire and constantly seek to be more like Jesus. We won't easily entertain things we sense are moving us farther from God.

When we believe we can't fall into sin or compare and believe we are immune to falling into certain sins, one day you could find yourself there. For when you believe you can't be tempted or fall into such temptation, you often fall the hardest. This level of pride is a weapon satan uses. When we are so confident those groups of friends won't cause us to become gossipers because we are just that strong in our faith, we will soon become like them.

They can convince you to go to a party and you can be confident you won't take anything that could lead to sin but you end up getting addicted to something you wouldn't have if you took heed to the Holy Spirit's warning and God's word. He can convince you to watch something you know is wrong but you can be confident it won't do anything yet now it has opened doors into your life leading you to sin in both mind and heart.

This shouldn't lead to paranoia though! Don't be overly anxious and fearful, living in guilt or thinking less than because you fell into temptation.

It's about being on the watch, being careful not to compromise. We can speak to everyone but that doesn't mean everyone is a friend. We can watch anything but not anything is good for you. We can do anything but not everything is God honouring.