Aware

 Since temptation is the acorn that can turn into the oak tree of sin, which in turn requires men with chainsaws, stump grinders, root saws, loppers, and grub hoes, to pull from the soil of one’s heart, it is wise and prudent to be aware of where temptation comes from, and how it settles upon the heart.

If the temptation that leads to sin that leads to death weren’t fatal, you wouldn’t have detox, rehab, Alcoholics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, or Overeaters Anonymous, although, for that last one, everyone knows already. You can’t be an anonymous overeater. The spray-painted tent you use as a dashiki kind of gives it away.

I get it. I’m one of those people that can’t trick his mind into believing that kale is good and quinoa tastes just like chocolate if you close your eyes and imagine it. It’s like the people who rave about tofurkey. With enough alcohol and salt, you almost believe it’s the real thing. Why not just eat the real thing? It’s not as though turkeys are extinct, and now all we have is the memory of what turkey tastes like. Sure, Butterball’s gotten into their heads that a turkey’s worth a hundred bucks, but you save your pennies, go halfsies with a neighbor, and have the real thing.

There’s a reason warm peach cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is popular; it tastes good. No one is debating whether or not it does; there’s somewhat of a consensus on that. Although I’ve never had one, I’m sure fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches with bacon are a treat for the gustatory system, just a fancy way of saying taste buds, but too many of those, and they’re wheeling your bloated corpse out of Graceland at the tender age of forty-two.

Sin is temporarily pleasurable but ultimately fatal. Some choose to focus on the temporary pleasure rather than the death spiral they’ve just started and talk themselves into believing it won’t happen to them even though it’s happened to everyone else. Once in a while, enough self-awareness is present that when they see their haggard, toothless face in the mirror, they realize this isn’t the joy and freedom they thought it would be, but for the most part, they continue to spiral downward, because climbing back up to the surface is too exhausting.

Sin takes most folks because they just stop fighting it. It takes effort to stand against the tide and no effort at all to go with the flow and let the river take you where it will. That’s when you surrender autonomy and are no longer in control of you, but your sin is. It becomes everything, your purpose, your identity, and your world suddenly becomes very small. All there is, is that sin, that vice, that addiction, that practice. Your every waking hour is spent in service to it, but you still try to tell yourself this is freedom.

There are three sources of temptation that the Word identifies, two from without and one from within. Yes, sometimes the call is coming from inside the house, and those are the ones that people have the hardest time with because you can’t walk away from yourself. If I see a warm batch of double fudge brownies in a bakery or a grocery store, I can walk out, hold my breath until I’m far enough away where I don’t smell the chocolaty goodness, and keep going on with my day. No, I won’t do anything as unseemly as try to eat a rice cake and pretend it’s a brownie; I just remove myself from the presence of whatever is tempting me.

The temptations that stem from within are more challenging to avoid because the battle with the flesh, the self, that carnality that still lingers, is an ongoing one that you must undertake daily.

Mark 7:20-23, “And He said, “what comes out of a man, that defiles a man. From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

From evil thoughts to fornications, adulteries, thefts, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, pride, and others still, all these stem and proceed from the heart of men. They proceed from within. It’s not the internet, the television, your neighbor, or your workmates; it’s from within.

These were the words of Jesus. He says that all these evil things come from within and defile a man, and the only way to avoid them is to be emptied of what was, be washed clean by the blood of Jesus, and filled anew with His Spirit.

Once you have mastery over yourself, once the inward parts of you are sanctified, the temptations that come from without will be easier to resist and escape. That’s not to say that vigilance isn’t required or self-discipline is not necessary. The enemy will try because that’s what He does. Your flesh will attempt to revive itself because it’s what it does.

Even after fifty years of being sober, those in Alcoholics Anonymous say, ‘my name’s Bob, and I’m an alcoholic.’ They haven’t had a drink in five decades, yet they know that all it takes is one misstep to go back to what they were, what they came to loathe and deem so unbearable that they sought a change.

We are redeemed, sanctified, and washed in the blood of the Lamb. Whenever the flesh attempts to remind you of sin’s temporary pleasures, remind yourself of all the long-term misery, pain, tears, and destruction it wrought. Remind yourself that the devil is a liar, and his singular desire is to convince you to stray from beneath the covering of God’s protection so that he might devour you at his pleasure.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.