1 SAMUEL 15:22 – And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
THEME OF THE DAY. THE JOY IN DEFEATING TEMPTATION. Today and throughout the day, like every day on this earth, we will be confronted with temptation. There will not be a day a Christian escapes temptation. It might be through the eyes and the temptation to lust after something or someone. It might be through the mind and the temptation to harbor ill thoughts about another person. It might be through the passions of our flesh and the temptation to laziness, procrastination, or allowing sinful acts affecting our body and emotions. Regardless of the temptation, we will do one of two things.
First, if we ponder and feed temptation, the result will be sin. The Apostle James writes “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). Begin to entertain in our hearts and minds any temptation and we will focus more on the momentary pleasure of sin instead of the spiritual poison in sin. The battle is then lost and sin will occur. Moses is a fine example of living aware of this deceptive tactic of our flesh, the devil and world – “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:24-25). We must see temptation and sin for what they truly are; lies and cheats that can never provide what they promise. Listen to temptation and let it lead us into sin, and after we have enjoyed the “fruit” of the sin, standby for the heavy heart of guilt, regret and remorse that will be more painful than the pleasure of the sin committed. So, that is our first option when temptation to sin arrives. Put up no fight, open the door for it to enter our lives, and spiritual misery will follow.
Our second choice to exercise when temptation comes is fight it by doing the will of God. Always remember, temptation seeks to take us out and away from the will of God and one of the chief aspects in His will is personal holiness. Holiness is to permeate all our lives – actions, attitudes, and affections and that demands defeating all temptations to sin. But there must be something motivating us to do successful battle against temptation; something to sustain our personal resolve to defeat it. If we try to defeat temptation because it is the right thing to do, we will fail. We will lean way too much on our own strength. Temptation is too strong. We need something else to keep us keeping on and defeating all sin. That “something” comes from our Lord and how He lived His life – “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). Our Lord’s model for us is the way to conquer all temptation. It is by delighting in God’s will. When we see our obedience to defeat temptation as the way to delight the heart of God, it will sustain us. Think about this. We get to please God by saying “no” to temptation and “yes” to holiness. And God is pleased when we do, but there is another great benefit in defeating temptation through obedience to God’s will – joy. There is far more inward satisfaction in obeying God than indulging in sin. So, as we encounter temptation today, let this privilege of delighting the heart of God and growing deeper in His joy be strong motivators to defeat temptation. After all, it is our way of saying, “I love You, Lord.”
PRAYER: “Father, help me to see that the joy in obeying You is far greater than sin’s fleeting pleasure.”
QUOTE: “Obedience is a delight not only to the heart of God but to His children as well.”