Prayer is Power for Overcoming Temptation

God cares that temptation attacks us where we are vulnerable. A mistake Christians make is believing they are beyond the cutting edge of temptation. Temptation doesn’t often confront us with violent aggression but may shrewdly enter our thoughts like a gliding butterfly to catch us unprepared to battle its power and influence.

Jesus warned us to watch and pray because temptation lurks in darkness and the light. He tells us to guard our vulnerabilities and our strengths. But how? Prayer is the channel God uses as a means for his power to flow to us to provide an escape from temptation’s lure.

God cares when you are tempted. Remember Jesus was tempted as you are, but he did not submit to its power. He is qualified to deliver you from temptation’s control and to heal you from the wounds it inflects. God does care when you are tempted, so be on guard and ask him for power to resist and overcome its appeal.  

__________ 

“Watch and pray. Then you won’t fall into sin when you are tempted. The spirit is willing. But the body is weak.”

~Mark 14:38 New International Reader’s Version

____________

Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week. 

Greasing the Wheels of Change - Part 1

         Philosophers say the more rigid we are in what we’ve settled for in life, the more resistant we are to change and growth. Becoming a prisoner of what we’ve settled for is not uncommon because choosing to change is not a simple task. Letting go of any habit or behavior involves an intense struggle and usually takes longer than anticipated to be successful.

          Jesus asked his disciples to share in his struggle on the night before his crucifixion by praying and keeping a vigil, but sleep overcame them. Jesus’ response was, “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Perhaps Jesus was pointing to his own humanness he would have to encounter as he faced the reality of pain and death on the cross.

          The implementation of God’s great plan came at great hardship for God and Jesus. If sincere consideration is given to what God sacrificed for us and what Jesus endured, then it makes sense to be less rigid and more prone to changes we can make that are pleasing to God.  Eytg