Do we give into temptation because of a lack of will power? Or is the problem what we will to do?
Our problem is not that our evil desires are too strong, the problem is our good desires are too weak. It’s easy to do that which you strongly desire to do. The better a person is, the easier it is for them to do what is right.
Jesus greatest desire was to be intimate with his Father. His desire to do his Father’s will was far greater than his desire to be comfortable or avoid pain. So how do we go from being self-centred, to other-centred? How can we escape the prison called “self”, and become more like Christ?
The Bible tells us to renew our minds (see Rom 12:2) But how do we do that? Do we renew our minds by reading the Bible? By praying? Or by doing something else? Yes, we should read the Bible and pray, but is there something else we need to do if our minds are to be renewed?
“Our wrong deeds are our dead works; our evil thoughts are our live sins. These, the essential opposites of faith and love, the sins that dwell and work in us, are the sins from which Jesus came to deliver us. When we turn against them and refuse to obey them, they rise in fierce insistence, but the same moment begin to die. We are then on the Lord's side, as he has always been on ours, and he begins to deliver us from them.” George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel
Our sinful nature is like a bad tempered spoiled child. Imagine a parent in a grocery store with their young boy who happens to be a spoiled brat. The child asks for a chocolate but when his parent says, “no” he begins to throw a tantrum. If the tantrum continues the parent could choose the easy way by simply giving into the child’s demands. (But if they do that they will experience far more frustration and pain in the long run, and if they do not change their ways, they will become the child's slave—and often a bitter slave at that.) If however, they resist their child and do not give into their child’s demands, the child will eventually realise that temper tantrums don’t get him anywhere, and will begin to calm down.
Whether or not the parent is strong enough to resist the child, will in large part depend on what they choose to focus on.
If the parent focuses on how difficult it is to resist their child, it won’t be long before they give into their child’s demands. But if they focus on the long-term goal, and understand that this is for the greater good, they’ll stick with it and do the loving thing for their child (and themselves) by not giving into those demands.
“When we turn against them [our sinful desires] and refuse to obey them, they rise in fierce insistence, but the same moment begin to die.”
“The same moment begin to die.”
That’s the key. Keep that in mind.
“We are then on the Lord's side, as he has always been on ours, and he begins to deliver us from them.”
Ask God for help (you’ll need it); he will help you if you are serious.1 If you trust and obey Jesus, you will be transformed through the renewing of your mind.
Yes, you will fall (perhaps often when you first start to fight). But don’t wallow in the mud. Get up and try again. You are like a small child learning to walk. Stick at it, and you will walk. Rise up and live!
Now obviously it easy to apply the illustration above to a serious sin such as drug addiction. But the same can be applied to being cruel, not being generous, or kind, or fair minded. There is always another mountain to climb. But with each mountain we do climb we become stronger; we become more like Christ. Some sins we will completely overcome in this life. Many we will not (we are not even aware of some of the sins that enslave us, but we will become aware of more and more of them as our sight grows clearer).
The kingdom of God belongs to those who overcome. If we trust and obey Jesus we will literally become better people. Our minds will be renewed. We will begin to think differently and feel differently. Jesus will save us from our sins.2
We are not that different to the little children in this video.
"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." (1 Cor 10:13)
God has promised us that he will help us to resist temptation if we trust him by looking for that exit. (Unfortunately, when we do not want to find a way out, we will ignore the exist sign even when it is right in front of us. The children who were able to resist the temptation in the video above, were the ones who were able to distract themselves from the temptation. If we focus on how good God is, and seek intimacy with him through obedience to him, we can overcome temptation. Love for God is the real key to overcoming sin. See Love.)
God is good. He wants us to set us free from self-centred ways. He wants us to learn to delight in others more than ourselves. He wants to make our hearts full and our wills strong. We must come to understand that we need God more than anything he can give. The giver is better than the gift.
Knowing God is good and that he is all we need is the key to resisting temptation.3 Whether the temptation is alcohol, drugs, women, pornography, losing ones temper, not being fair to an employee or customer, or not working as hard as we know we can for our employer, the choice is between the thing that is tempting us or God. Even if you don’t believe God is good, you can take other people’s word for it, and as an act of faith say to yourself, “God is all I need,” and ignore the temptation. If you do you will begin to discover a joy that is clean, and that your will is becoming stronger. If you do pursue God above all else, you will notice that you are able to resist things that you could not resist before.
But be careful. When we think we are free of a temptation we can become like careless children and revel in our freedom and forget that we need God. Foolish children forget their greatest need—the one who is the source of all their strength. There are depths of freedom and strength that we know nothing about, and will not know until God is finished making us. God wants to set us free from all sin. He wants to make us brave, honest, kind, and fair. He wants to make us exactly like Jesus.
Now you may think that if we were all like Jesus the world would be a boring place, because we’d all be the same—but the opposite is true.
“All wickedness tends to destroy individuality and declining natures assimilate as they sink.” George MacDonald: Alec Forbes, Volume III, Chapter 26.
The more we become like Christ in character, the more different we will become in personality. This is so because God made us with different tastes, desires, abilities, and tendencies; and the more we become like Christ the less we will care about what the world thinks of us and the more we will care about what God thinks. This does not mean we won’t care about people, we will care about them very much—but we will not care about their opinions of us.
1. Especially when—in the short term—the sinful nature's tantrum grows worse. Our old nature will fight to the death. It does not want to die.
2. Sadly, many who call themselves Christians have not begun to be saved from their sins. And what is worse, they have been convinced—by well-meaning but misguided people—that they are saved, so see no need of being saved. See "Salvation" below.
3. God is good, and he is better than anything he can give. This truth, along with the truth that a relationship is the eternal truth at the heart of the universe (a relationship has always existed in God), are the greatest truths in all the world. If we know the one who made it all is good, life takes on new meaning—knowing this makes all the difference.