Avoid Scenes of Temptation

“When you flee temptation, don’t leave a forwarding address.”

—ANONYMOUS

All of you must keep awake (give strict attention, be cautious and active) and watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

—Matthew 26:41

I suppose all of us wish we were never tempted to do wrong things, but that is not reality. The Bible says temptation must come, but why? If we were never tempted to do wrong, we could never exercise our free will to do right. God does not want robots or puppets serving Him; He wants free people who choose to serve Him. He sets before us life and death and urges us to choose life (see Deuteronomy 30:19).

The moment you feel tempted to do wrong, say no and get away from the temptation. If you had a problem with alcohol in the past, don’t go to the bars planning not to drink alcohol. If you had a problem with drugs and were delivered, don’t spend the day with people who use drugs. If you tend to abuse sweets, don’t keep cookies, candy, and cake in the house.

Sometimes we say we don’t want to do something and we pray for God to deliver us, yet we continue making provision for that very thing which tempts us. Perhaps the truth is we really don’t want to be free as much as we say we do. We must be honest with ourselves and realize the flesh is weak.

The apostle Paul said to “make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts)” (Romans 13:14). Get it off your mind and out of your sight and you are more likely to avoid temptation.