Thursday October 23
temptations we face
This is the last snack I’m going to eat today, you tell yourself. Then 5 minutes later you’re looking for another one! Michael Moss, in his book Salt Sugar Fat, reveals how food companies study ways to “help” people crave junk food. Some of the food industry’s biggest names hire “crave consultants” to determine people’s “bliss points”—the conditions when food companies can optimize consumers’ cravings. One popular company spends $30 million a year to determine the bliss points of consumers.
Just as there are crave consultants who can cause us to long for junk food, there’s a spiritual “crave consultant” studying believers in Jesus—trying to direct, shape, and distort their desires toward things that aren’t good for spiritual health (1 Corinthians 10:6). His name is Satan.
Satan is the chief force behind temptations that believers face. He tempted Adam and Eve to crave independence from God and incited them to shatter shalom (Genesis 3:1). He encouraged David to crave power by relying more on military capabilities than trusting the power of God (1 Chronicles 21:1). If believers don’t nurture intimacy in their marriages, Satan encourages them to crave satisfaction outside the marital union (1 Corinthians 7:5). He’s the world’s most cunning crave consultant, using money, power, lust, and pride to entice believers to reach the bliss point of sin and spiritual bondage.
We can resist Satan’s overtures by memorizing God’s Word (Matthew 4:4), watching and praying (26:41), remembering that God is faithful, and believing that He will deliver us from temptation. Our God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). —Marvin Williams
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The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand (v.13).
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Read Matthew 4:1-11 to see how Jesus resisted temptation.
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In what area of your life do you experience the greatest temptation? How has God been faithful in the past in helping you to resist that temptation?
Interview with a Prison Inmate from thefathereffect on GodTube.
