5 Simple But Powerful Habits That Weaken Temptation

Maybe the enemy is attacking your mind with tempting thoughts, or you're struggling to overcome some sinful habit that's been with you for weeks or months or even years. Or maybe you notice that you're beginning to slip back into compromise. This message is for you. It's going to help you, going to encourage you. And if you will learn and apply the truth you're about to receive, then your life will forever be transformed and you will find strength against temptation. So here are 5 simple but powerful habits that weaken temptation, and you can begin applying these habits immediately. Number 1, knowing the Word. This is an important habit. In Psalm 119:11, we read, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. If you don't know what pleases God, you risk displeasing him. If you want to please God, you must know the will and ways of God. If you want to know the will and ways of God, you absolutely must know the word of God. The word of God not only informs you about what pleases and displeases God. The Word of God also helps to subdue the cravings of the sin nature. In Matthew 4:1-4, we read this. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For 40 days and 40 nights, he fasted and became very hungry. During that time, the devil came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus told him, no, the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That strength to stand against temptation comes from the intake of the word of God. The word is your spiritual food. And if you lack spiritual food, you will lack spiritual strength. Jesus didn't use the experience to combat the devil. I want you to take note of that. Because here the enemy is tempting him to eat, to make the stones bread by way of challenging his identity. If you are the Son of God. Well, Jesus could have used his experience by pointing back to his baptism. He could have said, devil, weren't you there? when I was baptized and the Father spoke from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Didn't you see the dove descending upon me? No, Jesus, who if anyone could, could have used his experience, Jesus chose to use the word. He did not point to his experience. He did not point to his spiritual rank. He did not point to his accomplishments. He said, it is written. In the same way, you can't rely upon how long you've been going to church. Maybe you carry a title, that doesn't matter. Maybe you have certain accomplishments in the kingdom of God, that's great, but that's not what's going to help you under temptation. What's going to help you under times of temptation is, it is written, knowing the Word so that you know what pleases and displeases God, and taking the Word in that you find spiritual strength so that your spirit gains influence and you subdue the flesh. Number 2, be mindful of the company you keep. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, we read, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? In other words, the people who you allow to have influence in your life will affect your strength under temptation. If you're around people who are constantly speaking of sinful things, constantly encouraging you to do what you know you ought not to do, constantly asking you to go places with them that you know you shouldn't go, then those are influences you have to cut off. I'm not saying you can't love people. I'm not saying that you have to be mean to people. I'm saying that you cannot allow certain individuals to have influence in your life. Amen. If that relationship, that friendship, that connection is causing your walk with God to become distracted or causing you to stumble or to compromise, then you have to make sure that you are decreasing the influence of that connection. Now, sometimes this is difficult to do, maybe in the place that you work, the people there, they have to work with you. Maybe you have certain family members, you can't stop being their family member. Or maybe you're married to someone who doesn't love the Lord. They're not saved. Well, okay, there are those circumstances, yes, but be very careful about how you allow others to influence you. Be not unequally yoked. That is, don't take on their mindsets. Don't take on their beliefs. Don't take on their interpretations of scripture. Wrong people and wrong places will weaken you in your fight against temptation. And of course, I don't mean that we should quarantine the gospel or go and live as hermits at the top of some mountain. I simply mean that we must be mindful about the way these connections are affecting us. Number 3, commit to prayer. Every day that we don't pray is a boast against God. If you go a week without your prayer life, you're saying to the Lord, Lord, I can handle this week in my own strength. In John chapter 15, Verses 3 through 5, we read, you have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me and I will remain in you, for a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit, For apart from me, you can do nothing. To pray is to actively depend upon the Lord. We say we want God's wisdom, yet we don't pray when we make decisions. We say we want a connection with him, and we do have that. We say we want to cultivate that connection or receive from that connection, yet we don't take the time to acknowledge his presence. We say we want his power, Yet when we go through difficult circumstances or we're facing a trial, we neglect prayer, thus saying, Lord, I can do this in my own power. But when you pray and when you become a person of prayer, you're not operating in your wisdom, you're operating in divine wisdom. You're not operating in your strength, you're operating in God's strength. It is in the place of prayer that we exchange humanity for God's power. It is in the place of prayer that we exchange our weakness for his strength. We are plugged in, in the vine. So I encourage you, if you are battling with sin and temptation, you need to reexamine your prayer life because a strong prayer life will keep you from sin and temptation. But giving in to temptation, ultimately sinning, will weaken your prayer life. Amen. Not just because we're so distracted by the things of the world that we forget the things of the Spirit, but sin and temptation, when you give in to them, bring to you a certain kind of shame and condemnation that make you believe the lie that you're not allowed to pray or that you're not good enough to approach God. Well, there's some truth to that. None of us are good enough to approach God, but he still accepts you because of what Christ has done. Whatever strengthens my spirit, weakens my flesh. Whatever strengthens my spirit weakens my flesh. So if I'm praying, the spirit is gaining influence in my life. If I'm neglecting prayer, the flesh is gaining influence in my life. This is why it's so important that you commit to the discipline of consistent prayer. Build your life around prayer. Build your life around that time with God. Make your schedule around the secret place. Don't just go throughout the day and then try to give God the leftovers or fit prayer in where you can. Instead, actively, consciously, consistently put prayer first, devote that time to the Lord, and everything else will continue to fall into place. Now, the next point I want to bring to you Is not as commonly discussed, though it should be. In principle it is, but I don't think it's really dissected the way that it should be dissected. And I wanna give you this habit in just a moment, but first, if you haven't done so already, make sure you leave a like on this stream, whether you're watching it live or on the replay, because this is going to help to spread it to more people. So if you wanna help your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to overcome sin and temptation, Leave a like so that this video can get to them. They can receive the truth and find freedom. Also, if you haven't done so already, make sure that you subscribe to my channel and click that notification bell when you do subscribe so that you don't miss any of the spiritual growth content that I release on a regular basis. I do teachings on the Holy Spirit, prayer, spiritual warfare. We also show footage of the power of the Holy Spirit in action. So make sure you subscribe right now. And again, don't forget to click that notification bell. So what is habit number 4? Habit number 4 is to flee from sin or flee from temptation. Now, this may seem obvious at first, I know, but let me read something to you. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says this, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 2 Timothy 2:22, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Now, what do I mean when I say flee? I mean, don't stop to debate the devil. This is a problem that many Christians fall into because they're not aware of their own weaknesses. You see, if someone is struggling with alcoholism, they're not going to visit a bar, or they shouldn't visit the bar. If someone is struggling with sexual sin, they're not gonna go and be alone at their girlfriend's house late in the middle of the night. If someone is struggling with a food addiction, they probably shouldn't visit a buffet. If someone is struggling with laziness, they probably shouldn't surround themselves with distraction. If someone is struggling with anger, they probably shouldn't allow themselves to get so emotional. So if you're struggling with a certain sin or habit, you have to address the root of that and flee from the root, the cause, not just the symptom that manifests itself later. You see, let's just take pornography, for example. If that's something you're struggling with, let's say you finally give in to the temptation on Saturday. Well, it wasn't just Saturday that that began. It was because of what you were looking at, what you were thinking about starting Monday, then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then finally Saturday came. And after almost a week of feeding yourself these thoughts, allowing yourself to focus on what you shouldn't be focusing on, then finally temptation had its day. Temptation is not an event, it's a process. And so what you and I need to do is stop trying to debate the devil. Stop putting yourself in situations where you know you're going to have to fight. Stop trying to put yourself close to it just so you can enjoy it a little, but not give all the way in. That is self-deception. You're deceiving yourself. You're lying to yourself. When you say things like, well, I just wanna get near it, but I'm not actually gonna do it. What's the point of getting near it then? It's because in the back of your mind, that sin nature is trying to find an opportunity to take what it desires. So give it no desire, or excuse me, give it no opportunity. Don't act on those desires. Make no provision for the flesh. Starve the man of sin, starve the woman of sin. Amen. Put that other you in check. Tell them, no, you're not gonna get what you want. You're not even gonna get near to what you want. You're not even allowed to think about what you want, and subject that sin nature. Jesus takes it even further than that. Matthew 6:13 says, and don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. In other words, he doesn't want you to even go to that place of temptation. The moment you begin to debate temptation, you are at a disadvantage. It's better to flee from temptation than it is to fight it. And this is where many Christians become confused because they keep putting themselves in tempting situations and then going, gee, I wonder what happened. Or, wow, look, it happened again. And they lie to themselves by saying spiritual-sounding things like, well, I'm just trying to practice resisting the temptation. Or I'm trying to grow my spirit, and so I'm putting myself in that situation so that I can fight it off. My friend, that's not how this works. We are to flee from it because we recognize that that sin nature is always looking for an opportunity. And sad to say, it's just the case, it's reality. That's gonna be the way it is until you go home to glory. And so you have to tell the flesh, you're not getting what you want. You're not getting close to what you want. That's number 4, flee from temptation. Don't fight the devil on his terms. Don't fight the devil in his territory. Temptation, that's the territory that belongs to Satan. So stay completely away from it. Number 5, be humble. Pride goes before destruction. Why? Because some people are so confident in how holy they think they are. They're so confident in their own righteousness. They're so proud of how they're cleaner than everyone else, more put together than everyone else, how they have a higher standard than everyone else. Be careful, be careful, be careful. When you find yourself becoming judgmental toward other people's sinful habits, when you find yourself criticizing others because of their mistakes, be careful, that could be a sign. It could be, not always, but it could be a sign of self-righteousness. Yes, we ought to call out sin. Yes, we ought to correct brothers and sisters whom we love and know. Yes, we ought to do what we can to help others fight through their struggles. Absolutely. But if you notice that you're looking down your nose at fellow brothers and sisters, if you notice that you're weighing more on the side of law than grace, it could be a sign of self-righteousness. And that could be a sign to you that you could fall. In fact, all of us can fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, if you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. In other words, just when you think you have it together, just when you think you're this super spiritual Christian that will never have any struggle, that's when you've got to be careful. We have got to remain vigilant. All of us have to be aware that any of us can fall at any time. Let me say that again. Any of us can fall at any time. And to put your guard down and say, well, I'm so far from the line that I have it all together, or nothing could ever happen with me because I've had such a good track record, that's a scary place to be. We must cling to the Lord, recognizing our humanity and pleading with him, saying, Lord Jesus, help me to not fall. Lord Jesus, help me to stay near to you. Lord Jesus, help me to stay humble. knowing that I need your strength every day. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Now, this particular verse is sobering, we'll say it that way. Why? Because it was Paul the Apostle who wrote this. The one who said, follow me as I follow Christ. The one we revere so much as a brother in Christ who did so much for the foundations of the church. God used him in that way. Yes, he wrote a very good portion of the New Testament. We understand that. Even Paul was concerned with the flesh. Even Paul was concerned about that other guy. It often would seek out influence and opportunities to feed upon its cravings. Let's read that again, 1 Corinthians 9:27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away. You have to keep that, that being in subjection. So be humble. Be humble and recognize that you too need grace. You too need help. You too could fall. And if you get to the place where you say, well, I've had a great few weeks, now we can kind of go back to these areas of temptation, that's pride. Be careful. So these habits, once again, know the Word, be mindful of the company you keep, commit to prayer, flee from sin, and be humble. So precious Lord Jesus, I lift that one to you now, and I pray that you would help them to remember that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Remind them, Lord, that you don't punish us according to our sins. You don't deal harshly with us when we turn to you. Remind us, Lord, that you cast away from your memory Our sins as far as the east is from the west. Strengthen them, Lord, they might find mercy and grace at the cross, and help them to walk in holiness. Holy Spirit, I pray, be their constant reminder to cling to you. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. And I want you to say it Amen. And type it real big in the comment section. Amen. 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