Quotes About Temptation

The right to pursue happiness sends me and other Americans, even here where we are meant to resist outside temptation, on a hunt for it. If I'm not hungry, I might seek other forms of happiness, or pleasure, which is part of my American birthright, though the most misconceived notion of them or the most difficult to realize; I can pursue several means and ways to be happy, if I am able to forget what makes me habitually sad.

The Devil is vicious, but he's not victorious.

God won't give you more than you can handle." But that's not actually in the Bible. God does say He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear and that He always provides a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13). But that's not the same as God not giving us more than we can handle. He sometimes will allow more and more and more.

In the quiet, unexpressed, unwrestled-through disappointments, Satan is handcrafting his most damning weapons against us and those we love. It's his subtle seduction to get us alone with our thoughts so he can slip in whispers that will develop our disappointments into destructive choices.

Imagine this opportunity as an amazingly attractive but fast-moving river. There is so much that looks extremely appealing about this river, you're going to be tempted to jump right in. But once you are in the river, you have diminished your ability to make decisions. That river is moving so fast that it will take you where it is going. And if you haven't carefully traced out in advance whether you want to go through and to the places that river flows, you'll be in trouble.

Overstuffing ourselves with food or drinking until we get drunk or getting wrapped up in the affections of an adulterous relationship are all desperate attempts to silence the cries of a hungry soul.

As soon as sin was their choice, the cover of darkness was their preference.

I needed a go-to script for this situation. So, I lowered my head and prayed, "God, I am at the end of my strength here. This is the moment I've got to sense Your strength stepping in. The Bible says Your power is made perfect in weakness. This would be a really good time for that truth to be my reality. Help me see something else besides this temptation looming so large in front of me it seems impossible to escape.

God made us to crave—to desire eagerly, want greatly, and long for Him. But Satan wants to do everything possible to replace our craving for God with something else.

I realized that most times it's not the big things along my spiritual journey that tempt me to get off track. It's a culmination of small daily aggravations I know God could fix but doesn't. But what if instead of seeing these aggravations as inconveniences, I saw them as reminders to draw near to God?

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

With each temptation, Jesus, without hesitation, quoted Scripture that refuted Satan's temptation. Truth is powerful. The more saturated we are with truth, the more powerful we'll be in resisting our temptations. And the more we'll naturally direct our cravings where they should be directed—to the Author of all truth.

The Devil is powerful, but he's also predictable. We are told in 1 John 2:16 the exact three ways he's going to come after us. "For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father, but from the world.

I'd much rather run to the mall and get a new shirt than run to God and get a new attitude. I'd much rather dig into a brownie than dig into my heart. I'd much rather point the finger at other people's issues than take a peek at my own.

It's tough being a sold-out soul for Christ stuck in a body that's so tempted to sin. That's why it's essential that I view my time with God each morning as a preparation and an invitation.

How dangerous it is when our souls are gasping for God but we're too distracted flirting with the world to notice. Flirting will give you brief surges of fun feelings but will never really pull you in and hold you close. Indeed, the world entices your flesh but never embraces your soul.

But if you are desperately hungry, a dish of just about anything is hard to turn away. Our souls and our stomachs are alike in this way.

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). He's not just looking to distract you, or tempt you, or pull you slightly off course. He's looking to devour you.

On the surface it appears that all we're talking about is food and the amount we consume. In reality, there is a more serious issue at the root of gluttony. Overstuffing ourselves with food or drinking until we get drunk or

getting wrapped up in the affections of an adulterous relationship are all desperate attempts to silence the cries of a hungry soul.

If the very downfall of humanity was caused when Eve surrendered to a temptation to eat something she wasn't supposed to eat, I do think our struggles with food are important to God.

If I'm in a situation where the temptation is overwhelming, I will have to choose to either remove the temptation or remove myself from the situation.

An interesting fact about the Garden of Gethsemane is that it sits at the base of a known escape route from the city over the Mount of Olives toward the Judean desert. This is the route David took when running from his son Absalom. Jesus would have known this. But instead of running, He turned to His Father and said nine hell-shattering, demon-shaking, Devil-killing words: "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36).

Secret worship is all about something in this world that seems so attractive on the outside but will devour you on the inside. Pornography