An alternative to temptation

August 12, 2011
The Life of Jesus; read today: Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane; Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46


ESV: Luke 22:46. and he said to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

I know this might be hard to believe, but I am human and I sin.  I have begun to notice that as I work my way through things I have had to lean on prayer.  At time I have not done so.  I have tried to wrestle though things thinking that this was a ‘thorn in the flesh’ that I would have to deal with.  It was not one.  I would fight my flesh in the natural, and then at the end of the day I would go to sleep not having prayed about it. The next day it was still there and I would struggle some more.

Today however I discovered something thing new.  For some reason I did not understand I felt this strong urge and it came out of the clear blue sky.  There was no logic behind wanting to do this thing, it just came up.  As I remembered pondering on this verse, I decided to take it to God in prayer.  I did not want that temptation.

Later, I noticed that the desire had left me.  I asked God what was different and I got two things. One, I had taken the time to ask for His help, and two, I had been under a great deal of pressure to get a task done, and when it was done, the extra adrenalin had no place to go, so it was wanting to get out the only way it could before.

Now I am far from being perfect. But I have found a new tool to help me in my fight from wanting to sin.


Read for next time: Mob comes to arrest Jesus; Matthew 26:47; Mark 14:43; John 18:2-3