Temptation - The Lure of Satan

As the most dangerous winds may enter at little openings, so the devil never enters more dangerously than by little unobserved incidents, which seem to be nothing, yet insensibly open the heart to great temptations.  John Wesley

Not one of us is exempt from temptation. We will all face temptation in various forms at some point in our lives. This is what 1 Corinthians 10:13 says. So we should not be surprised when we are tempted. The question is, where do these temptations come from? James 1:13-15 (ESV) says,

“Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.”

James clearly says that God does not tempt us. He can allow us to be tempted, but He will never entice and lure us to fall into sin. The one who lures and entices us is Satan. He knows how to manipulate our weaknesses, our own fleshy desires, so that we succumb to his wiles.

When we think about sin, we tend to think about the Ten Commandments. The “big ones.” The ones we may think of as “unpardonable.” Sins, we feel, we will not easily fall prey to. But Satan lures us into his web of deception in many subtle ways because of our fleshy desires and our fallen nature.

The Lure of Satan

This can happen in ordinary, everyday events. You are having a conversation with a friend about a difficult challenge that someone has experienced. You begin by expressing empathy, but before you know it, the conversation turns to criticism about how they got into their situation in the first place and how they’re not handling it as you think they should. This is Satan’s trap to cause you to gossip.

You might be scrolling through social media and see that a friend’s been able to afford a luxurious holiday. Instead of being happy for them, you wonder: “Why them and not me? They don’t deserve it.” This is Satan’s lure to cause you to harbour jealousy and resentment in your heart.

A friend congratulates you on an achievement. You thank them, and you talk about how God has blessed you in this. However, your language is boastful, and you praise your own abilities and even exaggerate them. This is Satan’s lure to cause you to be prideful and not give God the glory.

We have all fallen into these traps that Satan set for us. I remember, as a single woman, being envious of friends who were married. But the Lord, in His grace and love, chastised me about this. He helped me not to look at my singleness as something deficient in my life or something that I needed rescuing from, but to see that my longing for something that I could only expect from Him was something that I needed to wait for. God also used Elisabeth Eliot’s book, Passion and Purity, to steer me from a place of restlessness to a place of contentment with my singleness, where I could wait on the Lord to bring the man I was to marry into my life. In my case, discontentment with my singleness caused me to be envious of others. I think for everything Satan lures us into, the Lord Jesus has an antidote. For me, the antidote to my envy was contentment.

To be tempted is in itself no sin. It is the yielding to the temptation and giving it a place in our hearts, which we must fear.  J. C. Ryle

Reflection

Think about the way in which you’ve fallen into Satan’s trap to gossip or to harbour envy, pride, or resentment towards others. Think about what you can do to counteract this. Think about the antidote to the temptation you are facing.

Prayer

Dear Lord, You know the temptations I am facing. Help me, Lord, to recognise the lures of Satan. Help me to resist these temptations. Lord, I give my carnal desires to you. I pray that Your strength will be made perfect in my weakness. In Jesus’ name, amen.