Tackling Temptation

A few weeks ago in my Christian Life and Discipleship class the lecture was on temptaion. I found it so interesting and was really challenged by some of the things we talked about. The week before we all took a survey which had 39 things that people are tempted with. We filled out the survey annonyomously (spelling?) only indicating our gender. He tallied them all up and highlighted the top 3 temtations for the girls and guys in the class. It was really interesting to see the results. For the girls the top 3 were:

1. Undisciplined devotional life
2. lack of time management
3. pride/worry (tied)

For the guys things were a bit different:

1. masturbation
2. procrastination
3. pornography


I myslef checked off about 25 of the 39 things, that's alot of temptation. But how are we supposed to avoid giving into those things? Well...first of all what temptation really is: the act of enticement to do wrong, by promise of pleasure or gain. Giving into temptation can definately be a sin. But what really is sin? Sin is to fixate on or do something contrary to what God desires.
But what can we learn about giving into or resisting temptation?
1. Eve (Genesis 3:1-7
2. Achan (Joshua 7: 19-25
3. Joseph (Genesis 39:2-20
4. Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11)

LOOK THEM UP!!!!

How do we face temptation?

1. Be totally commited to Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2)
2. Identify yourself with Christ's death, buriel, and resurrection
3. Live a spirit-filled life with self-control (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16; 22-23)
4. Ask God for the power to resist (Phillippians 4:13)
5. Memorize portions of the Bible (Psalm 119:9. 11; Matthew 4:1-11)
6. Avoid the situation (1 Thessalonians 5:22)
7. Flee the situation (1 Corinthians 10:14; 2 Timothy 2:22)
8. Replace bad habits with good ones (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
9. Be accountable to another person to get prayer support and help (james 5:16; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

This really helped me....just thought I'd share it:)