Our mentality is the building block of our lives. When your mentality is wrong, everything that comes from you would definitely be wrong. Overcoming the gluey temptation is basically achievable for someone who has the right mentality that temptation is resistible. God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that which ye are able but will with the temptation also make the way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:3). In every temptation, there is always a way out. Note it. Temptation is prepared in a way that is porous. It is prepared in a way that leaves an exit so that you can escape. God knows about every temptation that comes your way. The Devil may prepare it though, but God weighs it that, ‘Is this not too much than you can bear?’ Every temptation comes your way with the approval from God. But the good news is: you can overcome it!
The main point is that Christians are not meant to see temptation as an element of depression but an element of elevation because at the end of every temptation that is overcome, there is always a reward from God and it starts from peace reigning in our hearts. ‘I the LORD searches the heart and examines the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve’ Jeremiah 17: 10
If fire that destroys some people, also cooks for some people to eat, if the wind that depresses is used as an elevator for a kite, if the key that locks is the same key that opens, so don’t have an absolutely wrong mentality about temptation that it has come to destroy you as a Christian. Though the devil brings it for destruction but who is the devil to make a decision of destroying you when he wasn’t there when your GOD was moulding you?
This is the conclusion worth making: as temptation is an instrument for destruction in the hands of the devil, so is temptation an instrument to increase the level of faith, courage and purity in the hands of Christians. Therefore, we as Christians can also choose to view the purity side of the coin that temptation tosses. Because no matter how tough or how tight the temptation seems like, there is always a way out. Always there is! That’s why it is called temptation. Temptation is when you are left with choices to make: either to stay or to leave. So I want you to eradicate the wrong mentality that temptation is irresistible. The only thing that can encumber you in overcoming the gluey temptation is when your mentality about temptation is wrong.
Now, this is the good news: ‘God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above which ye are able but will with the temptation also make the way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:3)
BOTTOM LINE: YOU CAN WIN!
Stay blessed!
– A.O.D. Oluwafemi
| Temptation never comes out of our dislikes. My own definition for temptation is ‘desired but unrighteous’. You can never be tempted by what you dislike. The Devil makes a usual visit to view the zeal we place on the things of the world before he sets before us temptation. Temptation doesn’t just come, it comes when we place our interest on the things desired but unrighteous. He entices us with the things he knows we hardly do away with.
I have come across so many Christians who are said to have repented but still find themselves doing that which is desired but unrighteous within a wink of an eye. The fact that we are tired of sin doesn’t grant us an exit from the sinful world. Although we can be tired westill find ourselves doing it. Overcoming the gluey temptation requires strategies that negate the wishes of the flesh. ‘…make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof’ (Romans 13:14) We can’t place the mirror before the sun and expect it to reflect the moon. And in the same cline, we can’t live in the dome of impurity and expect our thoughts to portray purity. There are gatherings meant for sinners and there are gatherings meant for saints. If not, the Psalmist won’t tell us to ‘walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of the sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful’. The nature of our body is being synthesized in a way that is sensitive to whatever we are surrounded with, that’s why we need to be very careful when it comes to people we commune with. The scripture says ‘as iron sharpeneth iron, so as man sharpeneth another’. The shape of our thoughts is sometimes distorted by the things fed into our sight, ear and to our feelings. ‘do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits’ 1 Corinthians 15:33 Perhaps you are still confused about falling into the same temptation over and over again after so much counseling and deliverance. Overcoming the gluey temptation is not only the effort of counseling and deliverance but it is the accomplishment of strategies crowned and governed by divine grace. GRACE can be simply defined as the ACQUISITION of a POSITION that even your QUALIFICATION does not meet in all RAMIFICATION. So when your strategies are seasoned with divine grace, then the gluey temptation becomes history. Martin Luther said ‘you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair’ YES! You can’t shut your eyes while walking in town but you can shut your mind from cogitating on what your eyes see. It’s all about principle! It’s a principle sprung up by a heart that truly hates sin. LOOK AT THESE: ‘a man who is truly tired of masturbating is not expected to keep the record of porn sites’ what for? ‘a just-repented harlot doesn’t have any excuse for exposing her cleavage’ what for? ‘a man who is truly tired of adultery is not expected to fill ‘single’ in any form’ what for? It’s all about principle crowned and governed by divine grace. ‘Temptation ceases to be overcome except our zeal reflects nil’. Now the question is ‘are you truly tired of that sin’? If yes ‘are you ready to negate the wishes of your flesh’? If yes ‘stay tunned till next week’ BOTTOM LINE: Ask God to make you a spirit-driven soul and not a flesh- driven soul. You are blessed! -A.O.D. Oluwafemi |
Over a man’s tomb I sat,
Wondering what to write,
Phrases I had used in times past
Didn’t just seem right.
Gone too soon was such a line
But before he died he said it was just the right time.
Gone but not forgotten nearly sounds cool
Only that He said he would be back soon
We lost a gem was for a brilliant boy who died at the age of twelve,
Only (this man) that He was not lost, but we found a gem through his death
Call to Glory was for a Christian whose folks didn’t like the sound of lost
Only this man had no such worries for he knew where he was heading towards
He said he left his Glory to die and has gone back to the same,
Transition…always wondered what that meant,
Only to learn it meant to move away to another place,
But this man didn’t really do that saying He would not leave us as orphans
Forever in our minds could stand but I don’t really like the mind part
For I know he is more real to me than my mind can fathom
Never to be forgotten…how could I
In memoriam…sounds too solemn
Gone but not forgotten…I just don’t like the gone part
But while I was wondering what to inscribe with chisel in hand and mallet in the other
The tomb shook…
I peeped in to see the remains of this man…maybe I would get some inspiration
What a neat tomb I must say…
Most likely used for the very first time
…. But wait a minute
Something isn’t right
The tomb was empty
No one!!!
Only a cloth wrapped neatly
Mouth agape I cried
Now I understood all He said
As under a spell I left the tomb
And struck away with my chisel ad mallet
Pieces of stone flying across my face
The wolves howled
The owls hooted
The crickets were really noisy that night as I was told later on but I didn’t notice
Soon the cocks were crowing
But soon it would be over
Stroke after stroke and then one final stoke
Yes
…Under the moonlight
I looked at what I had inscribed
And I knew nothing else could I add
For on the tomb was written
-HE’S NOT DEAD. HE’S RISEN!!!
– bolaji akanni
