OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS (1): YOUR DESIRE IS THE TRAP

As a young child, I loved festive seasons, but it came with many temptations. Mummy would fry chicken. We usually call it ‘chicken peri-peri.’ It was always tasty. The chicken always seems to be calling my name. I do my best not to answer, but I always just return to the fridge to check it out and look at it. 

They seem to cry out to me, “Please, take me. Rescue me from this fridge”. Before you know it, I have a pull at the skin of one, followed by a tiny strand that soon becomes a large chunk. 

Just like the chicken seems to call my attention and I desire it, it is the same way that the devil studies a man to know what he desires. He leverages the desires of a man to tempt him. You cannot be tempted with what you do not desire.

The devil did not tempt Jesus with what was not desired. When Jesus was hungry after his fast, the devil suggested that he should use his power as the son of God to prove a point (meet his own needs also) by turning stones into bread. 

where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

Luke 4:2-3 NLT

The devil leveraged the perceived need of Jesus at the moment to tempt him. 

James, the apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed light on this. He said: Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

James 1:14 NLT

The temptation of David had always been women. Do you know one of the things that he did when he became king? 

And David realized that the Lord had confirmed him as king over Israel and had blessed his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. After moving from Hebron to Jerusalem, David married more concubines and wives, and they had more sons and daughters.

2 Samuel 5:12-13 NLT

Do you see why it was not a surprise that he fell into the temptation of adultery? His desire was the trap. 

If you like food, food will always be your temptation. If you like fair girls, that would be your temptation. If you like effectiveness, that super-effective sister or brother or secretary can become your temptation. 

Your desire is like a double-edged sword. It can lift a man when it is pure and wreck a man if the devil succeeds in contaminating it. Think of Solomon: 

Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship.

1 Kings 3:3 NLT

He loved the Lord, but his penchant for tiny compromises caught up with him. 

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites.

1 Kings 11:1 NLT

What is that thing that you really love?

Surrender it to the Lord before it becomes a trap for you. Surrender it to the Lord before the devil takes advantage of it. 

Lord, I submit my desire to you. Use it for your glory. 

© temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa.