“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mathew 26:41
I took a group of 3rd graders on a field trip to a working farm last fall. It was a huge farm with goats, cows, chickens and even a couple of lazy pigs that spent the entire day lying in the mud. One other feature of this farm that you don’t see much of North Carolina was a pretty good sized vineyard. We all love grapes right? This was in early September so the grapes were ready to harvest and people were already busy picking them.
After the days guided activities were over we had some free time to roam around. The owner of the farm told us that we could go anywhere on the farm we wanted, but to please stay out of the vineyard. The reason was that the grapes were being harvested for a local winery and they needed all of them. If you know anything about 3rd graders, a huge vineyard full of sweet, succulent grapes can prove too much of a temptation and unfortunately, for two little boys it was.
They managed to sneak into the vineyard unnoticed and sneak back out with two big handfuls of grapes. While a handful of grapes might not seem like a big deal among so many, the point is; the owner told us to stay out of the vineyard. It was the only rule. Because of the bad decision those two boys made, we were asked to leave early.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, people have faced many kinds of temptations. For Adam and Eve, it was the forbidden fruit. For you and me, it could be drugs or sex or cheating, lying, disobeying the rules or simply staying home from church to watch an important football game or going to the lake to fish. Temptation comes in all different shapes and sizes and it usually comes wrapped in a pretty package to make it more appealing.
Remember, Satan’s main goal is to deceive you, pull you away from God and get you to disobey him. The most effective tool in his arsenal is temptation. Satan isn’t God; he has no power apart from what God gives him. He can’t make us do anything that we don’t want to do anyway, so he tempts us with our own weaknesses. He offers us what we want more than anything else, but his gifts always come with strings attached.
Satan tempted Eve with forbidden fruit. Imagine how many times she and Adam must have walked by that tree and thought about how tasty the fruit would be. He brought her down to his level by getting her to question God… “Are you sure God really said not to eat this fruit?” Eve argued with him in the beginning. She knew exactly what God said, but Satan made a strong point. “You want die. If you eat this fruit you will be like God.”
Eve must have thought that piece of fruit was going to taste pretty good; maybe better than any fruit she’d ever eaten before. But as she and Adam soon learned, God had a reason for telling them not to eat it. They may have enjoyed the taste for a moment, but the guilt and regret lasted a lot longer. Satan was right about one thing. Adam and Eve didn’t die right then; but because they disobeyed God the course of their lives changed dramatically. They were created to live forever walking in the Garden with God, but just like us, their sin separated them from him.
Fortunately, God makes two important promises for us to remember when faced with a temptation that seems too great to handle. First, he’ll make sure the temptation is never more than we can stand. It might be more than we can handle alone, but it’s certainly not more than God can handle. He’s always there for us to lean on and draw strength from.
Second, God promises to give us a way out of the temptation. He’ll show us the way if we just ask. He’s already given us a lot of advice in the Bible. Memorizing his Word helps us to know the right thing to do. Without God, we wouldn’t have a chance against temptation. With God, we know we can stand strong und overcome it
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