Petting the Dog - Fighting Temptation

Recently when counseling a young woman I challenged her to consider how her sin had trapped her in the situation she was in. She was bogged down! It was not the circumstances that held her captive, but her heart responses to it. She was in trouble, and she knew it. Slowly it crept up on her and before she knew it, she was struggling with sin she had long believed conquered. How did this happen?

Her response did not surprise me as it is true for all of us who are confronted with the same situation – in our understanding of our own struggles or in the counsel we give others. The essence of her response was, I did not hold my thoughts captive to Truth. I allowed circumstances to dictate my reality, and not the Word of God to define what was real and true about my situation. I interpreted what was going on – I put my thoughts first and not God’s!

Her explanation of sinful thoughts not being controlled was like taming a growling dog. She knew it was dangerous, but she did not stop. She hated her thoughts, she knew they were sin, but did not repent. First she tolerated her thoughts, then she tamed her responses. She said it was like learning to pet – to train a growling dog! Slowly she befriended the sinful thoughts and allowed them to run through her mind at random. The random thoughts were justified and became accepted. She became okay with them.

1. How about you, do you mortify your sinful thoughts or do you tame them?

2. Do you befriend them, and justify them?

3. What strategy do you have in place to kill your thought processes before they take hold of you?

4. How will you implement your strategies?

5. What key verses, promises of God can you memorize pertinent to your particular struggle?

• Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made (Psalm 7:14-15).

• But for Cain and his offering He had no respect. So Cain became extremely angry (indignant), and he looked annoyed and hostile. And the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed? If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:5-7) Amplified Translation

• Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:15-17).

#temptation