Tempation or Sin
Mama kept an old-fashioned cookie jar full of store bought and fresh baked cookies in the cupboard. In the dining room, near the cupboard, sat a large, oval, wood table with a huge table cloth overhanging at least halfway to the floor.
Roughly preschool age, I remember hiding under the table early in the mornings, waiting for mama to make breakfast. The cookie jar just in view. Most mornings, my sisters (younger than myself) and I begged mama for one of those cookies. She handed us one cookie each, eventually.
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| Photo Credit: http://zerohacking.blogspot.com/2013/02/ session-hijacking-cookie-stealing.html |
One morning, mama slept longer than normal. My sisters and I played under the table while we waited patiently for her. That cookie jar beckoned us ...until ....I climbed up into the cupboard and retrieved it. Handing it to one of my younger sisters, she carried it under the table.
We ate cookies galore that morning, and put the cookie jar back in its rightful place on the shelf before returning to our room.
When mama came to the kitchen, we immediately heard our names called and mama inquired about the cookie crumbs under the table. We were caught.
What is my point with this story? Many believers are tempted by thoughts, in which they do not entertain, and yet they think they have sinned. However the fact is they have only been tempted to sin. In the above illustration, it did not become sin until my sisters and I acted on our the thoughts and went for the cookie jar.
The enemy takes advantage of young believers by deceiving them into thinking they have sinned, leading the new believer into guilt, and possibly believing they are not good enough, or never will be good enough to be a Christian.
Being tempted is not a sin. This is scriptural. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that even Jesus himself "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
Every believer is presented with temptation. Jesus' example shows us that the temptation is not the sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that temptation is common to man. It is participating in the temptation, which Jesus did not do, that is the sin.
When faced with temptation, resist it. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7
Do as Paul advised in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
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