Temptation Is An Inside Job

REFERENCE: James 1:12-15 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

OBSERVATION:  There are so many important truths we can gleen from this passage. We discover that there is a blessing for enduring testing and temptation. It is not just a matter of getting past the trial, we have a chance for blessing through patient endurance. We are going to have trials anyway, we might as well get a blessing in the midst of them.
We learn, as well, that God is not the author of temptation. A lot of people get that one wrong. We think that God tempts us in order to teach us something but this scripture makes it clear that God is not the author of temptation. It is an inside job--it starts inside of us. Our illicit desires begin to pull at our souls, haunt our minds and then, Satan takes advantage of that and brings the external temptation along. The best way, then, to deal with temptation is to recognize when it is growing inside--nip it in the bud!! We need to monitor our minds and be aware when we are being drug astray--that is the time to take action.
Finally, sin brings death. So much around us glamorizes sin. It disconnects the action and consequence and tries to make us believe that nothing bad happens when we sin--in fact it is fun and exciting. And . . . we often don't see a consequence. Not right away. That is why Satan can be so successful in telling us that sin doesn't matter. We did it and the roof didn't fall in. In fact, no one even found out. But, we can not be decieved, God will not be mocked, what we sow we will reap and if we give into sin, we will reap death--emotional, relational or even spiritual death--in time. It is simply not worth playing with. Sin will catch up with us and it will kill us!! It is that simple.

APPLICATION/CONFESSION: I need to remember that the real fight is in my mind. That is where temptation attacks and where I need to defeat it.