Overcoming Temptation

I cannot tell how I am buffeted sometimes
by temptation. I never knew how bad a
heart I have. Yet I do know that I love God
and love His work, and desire to serve him
only and in all things. And I value above
all else that precious Saviour in whom
alone I can be accepted. 
James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)

Let us try to look back the lives of Bible characters and meditate on how have some fall through temptation and how have some resisted it and became victorious over it. The temptation that caused Lucifer to be cast out of Heaven is a threefold pattern: Isaiah 14:12-15 tells us, "How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." In this passage we learn that Lucifer:

1. Saw the glory of God and the honor He received;
2. Desired in his heart to be above God;
3. Sought to take God's place.

The same pattern also happened in the lives of men and women in the Bible. Eve saw the fruit, desired it, then took it (Genesis 3:6). Lot saw the fertile plains of Jordan, desired to have them and settled (took) there (Genesis 13:10-11). Achan's sin was the same―"when I saw...then I coveted...and took them" (Joshua 7:21). So was David's sin with Bathsheba―he saw her nakedness, desired to have her, and then took her (2 Samuel 11:2-4). 

Christ's temptation followed the same pattern―a look at all the kingdom, a desire to eat, and to take His life in His own hands in casting Himself from the pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:1-11). It is the same pattern described by John (1 John 2:16): lust of the eyes―seeing; lust of the flesh―desiring; and pride of life―taking to have for self.

Now, let us know what God tells us on how to overcome temptation. His Word (the Bible) offers us a three-fold pattern to overcome it:

1. Use the Scriptures: Matthew 4:4; Matthew 4:7; Matthew 4:10; Psalm 119:11; 1 John 2:1.
2. Watch and pray: Matthew 26:41. If the Devil could get Adam and Eve to yield to temptation when they were in an innocent state, how much more can he tempt us in our sinful state.
3. Rely on God's faithfulness, which will provide an "exit" for us: 1 Corinthians 10:13.   

Jesus applied this pattern, and all the victorious men and women of God in past generations lived on this pattern. We, too, can overcome temptation. It is God's promise to give us victorious lives.