Temptation

The subject of FAT (see my earlier post for a description of FAT) this month was 'Temptation'. It was very thought provoking and an interesting topic to investigate. Here are some of the thoughts that stuck out to me:

Being God's Children

The way that we relate to God influences how we live our lives. If we see him as a demanding controlling entity in our lives, we will most likely rebel against him. If we see him as someone who will judge and punish us, fear and guilt will be our motivation to obey him. Although God has all things in his control and he will be the one to judge us at life's end, these are not the way that Christians should see God. Those who believe and trust in God have become his children. As God's children we should want to please our Father by obeying him and living for him, not becuase we fear him, but because we love him. I think that this is an important distinction when it comes to the motivation for obeying God's word. It's not because we want to work our way to heaven, or because we're afraid of what God will do to us if we don't obey, but it's because we love God that we want to obey him and his word.

Knowing your enemy

It may seem a bit harsh saying that we have an enemy, but it's the truth. As a follower of Jesus, you will be attacked in various ways. Some of these ways may be obvious, but the vast majority will be subtle. The Bible says that 'your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (1 Peter 5:8). We need to be aware that our enemy doesn't just want to hurt us a little, or make life a little hard for us, but that he wants to devour us, to totally destroy us. To do this he has a lot of tactics, which include lies, slander, accusations, temptations, and many more.

Society itself is at many times also one of our enemies. There are things that socitey says are 'correct' or ok, but are against what God wants for our lives. Socitey will often present it's views in ways that make them seem harmless, which can easily lull us into believing that they are harmless. We need to make sure we know what parts of society are with God's word (such as helping those less fortune) and what parts aren't in line with God's word (such as sex outside of marriage). We need to be critical of our society in order to know what we agree with and what we don't. 

How to deal with temptation

We are tempted to believe the lies of the devil and the lies of our society. We need to resist these lies and temptations and to trust in God's word. In order to do this, it's important to know what God's word is for us. Each time we are tempted or challenged, it's hard. Once that challange is over, another one comes at us. It's not an easy life, being a Christian, but it's a worthwhile one. It's one where we have the strength (from God) to overcome and to live the way that God created us. It's a life where we already have victory because of Jesus and his victory over evil and death through his death on the cross and his resurrection to life.

These are just some of the thoughts for the workshop, and I wanted to share them with you. I hope they have helped!