Apicontent

Poof! Wouldn’t it be nice if once we were Christians temptations suddenly lost all their appeal? If Satan simply disappeared? If we didn’t have to struggle?

We often pray, “Lord, take this struggle away from me.” But reality is like King David writes in Psalm 18:39, “You give me strength for battle.” David, though he depended on God, actually had to fight in real battles where he could have died. Victory was fully God’s but accomplished through David’s very sweaty efforts.

It is the same for us as Christians when we face temptations. We actually have to fight.

If the core of temptation is to get us to depend on something else besides God, then we can fail in two ways: we can not fight at all and just seek satisfaction or security in whatever the temptation offers: work, things, status, sex, etc. But we can still fail if our resistance comes from another sin: pride, arrogance, judgmentalism. We have a responsibility to fight, but fighting has to be done as a form of dependence on God.

Thus resisting is not a matter of saying just the right words, having specialized spiritual knowledge, or an abundance of will-power. James 4:7 is rather simple on this: “So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

We still have to sweat in this equation—“resist the devil”—but our action only comes after our submission.

So how do we actually fight? What follows are some ideas (the exact words are not important) but they are worthless if you are not starting off every day, every attempt at resistance, with dependence on God. That may mean actually speaking the words, “God, right now I choose to fully submit to you.” More deeply, however, it means starting each day and each act of resistance by declaring your identity in God. “God, I am your beloved child, and [paraphrasing Romans 6:6-7] my old self was crucified with you so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that I should no longer be a slave to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”

Once you’ve declared who you are, identify and replace lies, take thoughts captive, and seek help from your community.

Identify & Replace Lies

All temptations have a lie involved. It’s like advertising that seems to promise a new life and identity as a result of buying a product. The appeal is based in something true: we want meaningful connection with others, to be respected, or to have joy, but the means offered to give us those things is flawed. New shoes might help you like how you look, but they’re not going to make you less lonely.

Stop and consider what is being offered in a particular temptation. We can respond to a temptation by saying, “I reject the lie that ______ and embrace God’s truth that _______.” This can be especially helpful if we’re dealing with habits of sin where we have probably developed go-to justifications (lies) that ease us into giving in to the temptation. Ask the Holy Spirit to identify what those lies are for you, and learn what truth the Bible teaches that counters that.

For example, in the context of struggling with jealous thoughts, “I reject the lie that I’m more deserving, that it’s okay to sit in pity, and I choose to trust God’s truth that contentment is found in him.”

Take Thoughts Captive

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments 5 and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.”

The main battle against temptation is in our minds, well before action has taken place. So a major part of resisting is to identify the sinful thoughts or the thoughts that lead us toward sinful action or inaction, and refuse to let them linger. One way we can do that is by saying, “I reject that thought in the name of Jesus.” Simple and quick, a phrase like that brings us to dependence on God, identifies the thought, and chooses to do something with it instead of feeling helpless before it. As the thought returns (it’s ok if it does, but again don’t let it linger), speak that phrase again. If tempting thoughts are persistent, be more intentional in addressing it by quoting scripture, like the passage above. If you are still bombarded with tempting thoughts or the appeal hasn’t lessened with resisting, it is time to:

Seek Help from Your Community

We were not made to battle alone. God, in his wisdom gave us other believers on whom we can depend. James 5:16 bluntly states, “So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness”.

When we have tried resisting temptation and it still seems too strong, it is time to ask for help. We can pray with someone, ask others to pray for us, even calling or texting someone takes you out of the isolation of the tempting moment and connects you to the body of Christ, the Church.

There is a great scene in the children’s book Ramona the Pest [1] where the kindergarten namesake of the book is reveling in her new red rain boots, invincible against the wetness and mud of the outside world.

Superior to anything she might encounter, she stomps through a muddy construction site, brashly ignoring the older (and wiser) kids who warn that she’ll get stuck in the oozing mud. Ramona suddenly finds herself stuck in the middle of a muddy lot, unable to move for fear of losing her cherished boots, late for school, alone, and the object of classmate’s stares and shaking heads. Her arrogance crashes quickly into hot tears of frustration and shame.

Shame. The plunging pit in the stomach, the heat, prickling up the neck, the wash of emotion that renders us small, paralyzed, stuck in the mud, scorned.

Shame. The awful reversal from the lure and appeal of temptation to the accusations: “You must be stupid to fall for that temptation again,” or “See, you really are a failure, who do you think you are?”

Shame is different from guilt. Shame is: “I am bad.” Guilt is: “I did something bad.”…Guilt: “I’m sorry, I made a mistake.” Shame: “I’m sorry. I am a mistake.” [2]

Shame paralyzes us in the midst of our life with Jesus because it accuses us at the core of who we are, at the level of our identity. “You’re a sinner and won’t ever be anything else.” “God won’t forgive you this time.” “God doesn’t really love you.”

When we listen to that voice of shame, we remain stuck in oozing mud, hiding our face. With our face covered we don’t see that God has already made a path out for us in Jesus. He stands ready to carry us to safety and clean us off if only we’d receive his help.

Romans 8:1,33-34 states the truth of God’s forgiveness: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.”

It is our identity as forgiven, beloved children of God that gives us the courage to face and reject the paralyzing lies of shame. We don’t ignore what we’ve done wrong, we still have to turn away from sin and turn back toward God. But we know that when we turn toward God we are turning toward an embrace and welcome, not accusation or a slap.

1 John 1:9 promises, “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.”

Our confession doesn’t somehow make us able to be forgiven, it allows us to receive God’s forgiveness—to reach out and accept the gift of forgiveness as something valuable beyond measure with gratitude. If we aren’t turning away from our sin, then the gift is worthless and we have no gratitude.

But when we have named what we’ve done as wrong, we are able to joyfully receive the gift of forgiveness. Gratitude can spill out as we take hold of the strong hand that pulls us out of our muddy, arrogant mess. We can receive God’s love as a child, thankful to be saved and forgiven. Safe in our identity in Jesus, we have the power to reject the paralyzing lies of shame.

[1] Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest. (New York, W. Morrow, 1968).[2] Brene Brown, “Listening to Shame,” TED Talk, March 2012. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame?language=en#t-850145

Westerners are conditioned to love the rugged hero. Whether superhero, Jedi knight, cowboy, soldier, or politician our heroes are individuals who have had courage to single-handedly defeat their foes.

There’s nothing wrong with that kind of courage, but we import that mentality into our Christian life. We easily assume that if we are “real Christians,” then we shouldn’t need help to follow Jesus and resist temptation.

God set his people in community so we can worship Him together and be encouraged, but also to help us resist temptation and prevent us from depending on anything besides God.

Good Christian friends and mentors who know us well can lovingly point out places where we are at fault, ways we’ve deceived ourselves or bought into Satan’s lies, point us toward dependence on God, remind us of our identity in Christ, and be safe people to help us understand ourselves and our tendencies toward sin.

In this kind of close and trusting relationship we can also practice a confessional way of living. The act of confession is agreeing with God that a specific thought, pattern, or action is sin and then choosing to turn away from that and turn toward God to meet that need.  Confessional living, then, is committing to initiate conversation with a trusted, mature believer about sinful thoughts, patterns, and actions, in your life so you can understand them and confess them to God.

“In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him.” [1]

This kind of dependence on our Christian brothers and sisters requires courageous vulnerability and should only be done with someone who is trustworthy and who also knows how to be vulnerable and receive God’s forgiveness for their own sin.

Here are some ideas for resisting isolation and living confessionally:

1. Commit to opening your life—all of it—every thought, motivation, and action up to another.
2. Initiate a time to confess your sins to God in prayer, but with the other person present (or listening if it’s over the phone). The responsibility for confession has to be on you. It won’t really work if you depend on the other person to ask you.
3. Meet with the other person regularly but have the freedom to talk sooner if you have something big to confess.
4. Be willing to talk about what you were thinking, feeling, what the context of the day was like, and what lies you might have believed that made it easier for you to sin.
5. Confess in prayer the specific lies and sins. Avoid vague confessions and the temptation to minimize what happened to try and save face.
6. Tell God you choose to receive his forgiveness.
7. Instead of condemning or catching you, the person with you during confession can then remind you of the truth of Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

It takes incredible courage to seek out the community God has given and incredible courage to be vulnerable with another person. But in so doing, we rely on God and his provision and not on our own superhero abilities.

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Life Together (New York: HarperCollins, 1954) 112.

Inevitable failure. Unavoidable temptation. Life is fated and stacked against us. It is easy to live with a mediocre hope for freedom and a shoulder-shrugging, “whatever” kind of dependence on God. In the choke-hold of temptation we hear the sound of the inevitability of our demise and all-too-often say, “Uh, Ok.”

In the clip from The Matrix (1999) above (Internet connection required to view), the character of Neo realizes that who he really is (Neo) gives him all he needs to successfully resist his enemy. At the last moment, he rejects the lie that he is just Mr. Anderson, and that losing is inevitable.

How can we move from passive acceptance of sin in our lives to victoriously striving against temptation? What has to change?

What Satan does best is call into question our identity. He tries to get us to prove our worth without depending on or trusting God. His accusations sound like this: “How can you call yourself a Christian, look at what you’ve done.” “Who do you think you are? If people only knew what you are really like…” “There’s no way God or anyone else could ever love you.” “This time you’ve gone too far; you can’t be forgiven now.”

We don’t get very far in our struggle against temptation by just trying harder. When we are hit with these kinds of accusations, we all too quickly accept them and passively expect to give in. After all, if we’re just messed up sinners who at best can only pretend to be good, why not give in this time too?

Resisting, however, ultimately depends on who we believe we are. “Understanding your identity in Christ is absolutely essential to your success at living the Christian life. No person can consistently behave in a way that’s inconsistent with the way he perceives himself.” [1]

1 John 3:1 says, “See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him.” Jesus tells the parable in Luke 15 commonly called, “The Prodigal Son”, but it is better called “The unconditional love of the Father.” In it, we are given a picture of God’s unshakeable, almost unbelievable, love for us that welcomes us back as his beloved children, no matter our choices.

When we know and believe that we are cherished kids, beloved children of God, and victorious saints we have a firm place to stand in the fight against sin.

If someone, out of the blue, accused you of stealing their money, you would almost certainly resist the accusation if you knew you were innocent.

When a tempting thought occurs to us, our first thought can be, “That’s not who I am.” 1 John 3:9 says, “Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.” This verse is not a club to beat down Christians who sin, but hope that embracing our new identity will bring freedom!

One of the best ways to reverse the years of lies about who we are is the daily practice of reading out loud statements about our new identity in Christ. Reading aloud may seem weird, but it’s so valuable to see, hear, and declare truth instead of just seeing it. Study the scripture passages from which the statements are taken. The daily practice of reading these statements will begin a slow process of turning us from trying to resist temptation on our own (not depending on God) to resisting based on who we are, which is a beloved child, thankfully dependent on God.

[1] Neil T. Anderson. Victory Over the Darkness, (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990) 43.