Skip to main content

Lead Us Not into Temptation


This post was written by Bessie Wilson.

As Christians, we can say with the Scriptures that temptation is something that our Lord provided for. He did so in the Lord’s prayer. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13). Prayer accompanied by our obedience will keep us out of a lot of areas of temptation that some of us are fooling around with.

“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” (Prov. 6:16-19 KJV).

A proud look. The NIV renders this “haughty eyes.” In Japanese, it’s taki-buri, which is “high-nosed.” Are ever you tempted to have a high nose? A haughtiness because of your hometown, your college, your forebears, or your race? If you have this proud look, somewhere along the line there was a temptation you did not resist.

A lying tongue. This one is repeated in the list; the second-to-last is “a false witness who pours out lies.” How many lies are told among the Christian community! And not just little white lies, but big prevarications. You can lie about where you’re supposed to be, where you have been, about your responsibilities. You can lie about other people and destroy someone’s reputation in so doing.

The temptation to lie comes to all of us. Do you have to teach a child how to lie? No. You have to teach him how to tell the truth. Lying comes naturally; it takes the new birth to cure you. But just as a Christian can be tempted to adultery or fornication, you can be tempted to lie.

When he was in the navy, my husband once told a lie to a senior officer on board a destroyer. As soon as he told it, the officer knew he had lied. The man asked him a second time if he had done the task he’d been commanded to do, and Jim lied a second time and told him it was done. Then he went away and tried to get victory by reciting his memory verses and singing hymns. He didn’t get any victory until he went back to his commanding officer and admitted that he had lied.

Lies can be forgiven, but the habit of having a lying tongue is the deadliest thing I know. If you are convicted about it, seek out spiritual help for it. I know people who lied so consistently that I could never tell when they were telling the truth. The funny thing about lying is that you can do it so long and so well that even you end up convinced that it’s truth—“deceived and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:3).

Hands that shed innocent blood. This includes abortion.

A heart that devises wicked schemes; feet that are quick to rush into evil…and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. God hates a person who goes around stirring up the Christian community and making people hate each other by repeating what one person says to another. Love covers a multitude of sins.

 

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today.     A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg.    Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it.    Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...
7 comments
Read more

Joy

Here are five biblical passages on joy: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22). “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you” (Psalms 51:12-13). “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’ He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have give...
Post a Comment
Read more