The Best Way to Resist Temptation by Wholly Loved’s Christa Cottam from Wholly Loved Ministry on Vimeo.
It wasn’t the first time I’d caved in to temptation, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. I ran into the same enticements day after day. Some days I was able to resist, and others I failed miserably.
I knew I’d never escape this hamster-wheel without God’s help.
I love to run outdoors. But I don’t love the summer-time bugs-like swarms of them! Jogging one morning, I neared an area where I’d ingested a mouthful of gnats a few days earlier. I tossed out a lighthearted prayer-more of a thought than a genuine plea: “God, please don’t let there be gnats today” and instantly, He spoke three simple words: choose another path.
My breath caught.
I knew God wasn’t really talking about gnats. He was asking me to think about the temptations I repeatedly encountered. How could I experience a different outcome if I didn’t choose a to think and behave differently?
Proverbs 26:11 says: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”
Blunt? Yes. But true. I was a simpleton to think walking the same paths each day wouldn’t lead to the same shame and frustration.
I wanted God’s strength to help me face my temptations, but in reality, I needed His strength to turn away from them. Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t simply endure your condition but deciding to change it.
For me that meant changing what I watched, read, and listened to. It meant spending more time in God’s Word. It meant grabbing hold of the negative thought patterns forcing my mind to submit to Jesus.
Do you keep running into the same struggles? Perhaps it’s time to choose another path-one God has created specifically for you, and always remember that you are wholly loved.
Thank you for sharing, what a good word! And doesn’t the battle start in our mind?? “grabbing hold of the negative thought patterns forcing my mind to submit to Jesus.”