The Loss of Innocence

Matthew 26:41 NIV

 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

Do You Ever Enjoy Being Tempted?

When I was a sophomore in high school, I took a third year French class.  I did not bother doing the homework so I was dependent on my tests to get a passing grade.  That was not exactly a recipe for success so when my final came, I was in trouble.  The teacher gave us a long passage to translate in preparation for the final and I barely looked at it.  Like everyone else, I brought the study sheet into class the day of the final to go over it just before taking the test.  When I saw the exam, I realized my ship had come in, that I had a way to do well on my final.  It was word for word the French version of the English passage we were told to translate in preparation for the test.  In other words, my notes were the complete set of answers.  The only problem I had was finding a way of looking at the notes as I was taking the exam.  I slyly slid my notes under my test paper and started to try to translate the text on the exam.  I had two problems though.  I did not know my French well enough to do the translations and I was too scared to pull my study sheet out from under my test and actually use it to cheat.  When I realized that I was not bold enough to use the study sheet to get my answers and no matter how long I stared at the test paper, I would not be able to come up with the translation, I just got up and turned in my paper which most certainly would leave me with a failing grade.  Now I could claim that I did not cheat on my final exam which would actually be true but I certainly wanted to and only my fear of being publically humiliated by getting caught kept me from doing so.  You might say that when it came to cheating, my spirit was willing but my flesh was weak,

How many times a day do you think you are tempted to do what is wrong?  Are you ever tempted to lie, or gossip, or criticize someone to boost your ego or keep you from looking bad?  Are you tempted to be angry or drawn into lust?  Are you prone to feeling sorry for yourself or ever sucked into worry?  Are you tempted to keep your faith in Christ to yourself rather than share the Gospel with others?  Do you struggle with greed?  Have you been tempted to not give your ten percent to God because you want something or are afraid to part with it?  Have you been tempted to turn your back on someone in need or to pretend to not know someone needs your help?  Are you ever tempted to ignore God when He gives you direction?  What sort of temptations are you facing right now?

Temptation is typically thought of as something external and sin as internal.  You are responsible for your sin but not for the temptations facing you.  Of course in the moral climate where you live most sin is not considered sin and temptation is rarely given much thought either.  Yet Jesus insisted that you must think constantly about temptation; that you are responsible for not only sins you commit but temptations you don’t avoid.

Jesus had very little to say to the disciples as He went through the spiritual and psychological agony of Gethsemane.  He was laser focused on the Father as He processed the cross that was before Him.  There were no parables shared, no special teachings explained, just a command was directed to His followers.  "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Matthew 26:41 NIV)  Clearly Jesus did not think of temptation as a passive experience that overtakes you but rather something you can avoid.  The NIV translation weakens Jesus’ take on temptation.  The verb is not “fall” like something you might stumble into but “enter into”.  No one, unless he or she is acting chooses to fall, but entering into something is different.  It is you that must decide if you will enter into temptation, not Satan or some demon or even a tempter.  You are the one who chooses or does not choose to enter into temptation and Christ makes that very clear.   Much like the decision to enter into a park or a house or a church building, you decide if you will enter into temptation or not.

Jesus tells us there are two things we must do to not make the choice of entering into temptation.  They are watch and pray.  Both, Jesus says, must be done constantly, not once and move along but over and over again wherever you are.  Watching seems obvious.  Look out for temptations and be careful.  How many people have ruined their lives because they did not pay attention to the danger of a temptation?  The Titanic sunk because the captain did not pay attention to warning signs.  A friend of mine got into a car accident because he wasn’t paying attention to warning signs and now his car is wrecked.  Families have fallen apart because warning signs were ignored, addictions develop and crush lives because warning signs go unnoticed, people lose their jobs because they carelessly ignore warning signs.  What can we say about David and Adam and Solomon who suffered greatly because they did not see the risks involved in decisions they made!  How many lives did they wreck because they ignored warning signs involving temptation!

Rarely are we consciously aware of how great the risk a particular temptation carries.  Solomon probably did not know just how disastrous it would be for him to marry an Egyptian princess and David on the fateful evening was not aware of how going up on his palace roof one evening would tear apart his home and even his nation.  Was Adam aware of how great a temptation it was for his wife to listen to the serpent in the garden?  Probably not!  Would Custer have wished he could have been enlightened to the risk he was taking engaging the Sioux in battle at the Little Big Horn?  It takes supernatural powers to assess the true nature of most temptations.

Jesus did not just say to watch out for temptations, He commanded us to pray that we might not enter through the gates of temptation.  In a world that is growing increasingly unaware of the powerful spiritual forces working within it, prayer for any reason seems nonsensical.  “Just work harder”, you are told.  “Strike out on your own and make your dreams come true”, you are encouraged.  “Make your life your own”, it is proclaimed.  The supernatural working of God is declared an antiquated myth and yet there it is.  Christ says to pray so you won’t enter into temptation.

There is another factor that argues against praying you won’t enter into temptation.  Sinning often seems reasonable.  Why pray to not be tempted into sinning if you really do want to sin.  People who skip out on attending worship services or Bible studies do so because it makes sense to them to miss.  Those who don’t tithe have good reasons for not giving a full ten percent to God’s Kingdom.  You look at pornography or lie about something or get angry or hold a grudge because it makes sense to you.  You don’t think of sin as sin.  You think of it as pleasant or reasonable or your right but never as a temptation when you have decided to power on ahead into temptation.

Do you honestly think Judas Iscariot believed he was doing something terribly wrong and needed to pray about his decision to betray Christ?  Of course he didn’t.  It seemed like the right thing to do and he did not bother praying about the temptation.  When Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom being destroyed, did she think she was doing something horrific and wrecking her life?  Of course she didn’t.  She didn’t bother praying about turning back and looking at Sodom because she wanted to do it and it was reasonable to her.  Of course Judas did not realize the temptation to betray Jesus would wreck his sanity and destroy his life.  Lot’s wife did not consider that by turning her eyes back toward Sodom she would leave her daughters without a mother and her husband without a wife and the three without her would fall into moral depravity.  Temptation is not the sin but it is the entry point into sin.   Going into a bar does not mean you will become drunk but it is the entry point into drunkenness.  An advertisement is not materialism but it is the entry point into materialism.

Your temptation is not always mine and mine isn’t always yours but it is real and if you pray and watch, you can know when you come to it.  At the point of temptation, your will to follow God weakens and your reasons for staying faithful to Christ lose their power to sway you.  Sin makes sense to you and you shut off those voices that try to stop you.  And then sin enters you and changes the course of your life.  How sin affects you and how severely it damages your life varies from sin to sin and person to person.  Yet there are some universal aspects to sin and its effect.  There are at least six signs that sin has corrupted your life with Christ.  1.  You become irritable and your peace fades away.  2.  You lose your way.  You make bad decisions.  The ramifications of how bad your choices are may not show up at once but eventually you will regret what you have done.  3.  Critical relationships become disrupted without a clear cause.  People get upset with you or you with them and you don’t know why.  4.  God disappears.  You don’t see Him at work and you lose interest in Him.  5.  Many times sin damages the normal health of your body. You suffer from pain and sickness brought on by rebellion against God.   6.  You grow increasingly anxious and have a hard time understanding why.  Your anxious thoughts may lead to trouble sleeping and bad dreams.

Temptation is like a mosquito bite.  It may just result in a minor irritation or it could lead to malaria.  Christ said you must do all you can to avoid temptation.  Watch for it and pray you do not enter into it.  How serious are you about living without sin and not letting it wreck your life or the lives of others?  Bend your heart before Christ and ask Him to protect you from temptation.  Pray He will keep temptation from you at this moment and to build within you a hatred for all forms of sin in you.  List the last three sins you know you committed and choose to despise them and confess them to God and acknowledge that they are evil. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Ecclesiastes 1:3-5 NIV

What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

What Should You Do Next?

At the age of thirty-two, I came to a major crossroads in my life.  I was about to graduate with my degree and because Mary Jo and I lived in school housing, we had to move.  But where?  I loved New Orleans, enjoyed being close to Mary Jo’s family.  Mary Jo had a very good job where she was successful.  I enjoyed my work as a behavioral therapist and took great pleasure in helping rebuild broken families.  There was no reason to leave.  Housing was fairly inexpensive and we could have soon bought a nice home.  We both had a wealth of great friendships and loved our church.  Yet, we both knew we were about to embark on a new journey; the question was “What do we do next?”

Perhaps you too have felt the itch for a change.  You watch the same TV shows over and over again.  Each day you wash dishes, take the kids places, wear the same clothes, drive the same car, arrive at the same home and nothing much is really different.  It could be that you have grown bored with your life.  You take the same route to work, eat the same foods and wake up with the same problems.  As the Bible puts it, “the sun rises and the sun sets” and this just keeps happening day after day, year after year.  You can buy new skirts, go to a different restaurant, see a new movie, try out a new hiking trail but that does not mean you will quit feeling like you are a hamster running on her wheel.  Much of your life is repetitive and common and you may feel tired of the boredom you are experiencing.

Solomon, the famous king of Israel struggled with boredom too.  He read lots of books, studied plants and animals and wrote thousands of proverbs to challenge his mind.  He built gardens and homes, acquired thousands of horses and cattle and sheep.  Solomon switched religions and got married over and over again just to fight the monotony.  The wealthy king had the finest chefs at his disposal and could buy anything he wanted.  Here is a summary of Solomon’s quest for deliverance from the hamster wheel. 

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.  I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.  I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.  I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.  I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well — the delights of the heart of man.  I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.  I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.  My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.  Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 NIV)

So there you have one of the wealthiest people of all time unable to overcome the boredom of life.  The Bible is filled with examples of those who thought a change was needed.  David, perhaps tired of conquering nations decided that at the age of forty or so that he would try conquering another man’s wife.  Moses at around one hundred years old acquired a new wife.  Jacob at sixty quit working for his father-in-law and packed up his family to start his own business a hundred or so miles away.  David certainly made a wreck of matters by committing adultery and having his lover’s husband killed.  Moses certainly did not help his marriage any taking on a second wife and perhaps it worked out for Jacob breaking away from his father-in-law but what we have noticed over the years is that regardless of what changes you make, if you are the same person after the changes, then whatever irked you about life will return, perhaps even worse than ever.  It seems that whatever Solomon did to upgrade his life wound up increasing his levels of misery.

The problem that is rarely addressed is that there is an underlying level of angst among God’s people.  Within the mass of humanity is an unexpressed fear or doubt among many that the Lord is not good enough.  What if it does not go as He promises?  What if Christ cannot fix our problems, is unable to satisfy us, won’t really make us better or our lives better if we follow Him?  The doubt that God doesn’t live up to the hype is prevalent and is not easily overcome.  Many are like the officer in Israel’s army who when he heard that God would provide plenty of food for the people of the city he was helping defend, exclaimed incredulously to the prophet Elisha who gave him the news, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?" (2 Kings 7: 2 NIV)  Now we must admit that the soldier had what many would say was good reason to discount the prophet’s words.  The city of Samaria was under siege by a great army and it was so bad and food so scarce that the people had started practicing cannibalism.  The king of Israel was equally skeptical of God helping them.  And [the king] said, "This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?"  (2 Kings 6:33 NIV)

Few of us have been in such a terrifying spot as the king and his officer but most Christians and non-Christians have at one time felt the same way about the Lord’s willingness or capacity to help.  “Does the Lord really love me?”  “Will He do anything to help me?”  In a world that is wrecked by Sin at every level, it takes courage to trust God when so much is bad and really bad.  People are cruel to each other, calamities occur that are not rational and the natural order is filled with evil and death.  No one can say that everything is sweet and comfortable because it isn’t or if it is it won’t always be.  The natural response to the troubles and hardships in this world is to look for a change that we manufacture.  We move.  We buy something.  We find entertainment that distracts us.  We medicate.  Recently I saw in the news that a fifteen year old girl left her home to join a violent street gang that is known for its corruption and cruelty.  The girl was beaten, tortured and stabbed to death by members of the gang she hoped would make her life better. How can you explain such misery?  It is a broken world and what will a funny movie do to alleviate that?  Can a new pair of sneakers make you feel really good when you are fighting with your husband?

It is true that you may need a change but why not let Christ be at the center of your change. The Gospel of Luke has a beautiful little side note that provides us with insight into our need for change.  After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.  (Luke 8:1-3 NIV)

What a lovely example for us all.  These women had been broken.  Some, like Mary Magdalene, had suffered from demon possession; others from diseases.  They could have been bitter over all they had suffered in life.  They could have built their lives without God because it might have seemed to them that He had let them down and put them through so much.  Instead, the women gave themselves over fully to Christ because of how He remade them and filled them with goodness and peace.  In addition, they found ways to help finance the ministry of Jesus and the disciples. These women certainly needed a change but the change they made was to devote themselves more fully to Christ and the Kingdom of God.  It was in Christ that they discovered life that was meaningful and filled with purpose.  They no longer were hamsters trapped on a wheel.

Perhaps you too need a change.  Why not make a change that can have a lasting impact on you and others.  Perhaps the change you need is to go on a fast.  Seek God with a clearer mind.  Maybe the change you need is to begin a ministry or join a ministry that brings help to others.  The change you really need might be to begin spending concentrated periods of time in prayer or Bible study.   Maybe you need to make a sacrifice to God that requires faith in Him to take care of you.  Perhaps there is someone or a group of people who need you to concentrate on helping them find Christ through the Gospel.  Why not make a change that might really do you some good?  Perhaps there is a child or a senior adult that God wants you to help.  Maybe it is time for a change; one that might bring you great joy as you experience more fully than ever God and His love flowing into you and out of you in real and specific ways.

The New Year Resolution...Biblical?

Try as you may, you will be hard-pressed to find a single man or woman of God in Scripture making New Year's Resolutions or goal setting.  They attempted the impossible but not as some long term plan.  Perhaps Solomon alone would be classified as a goal setter but this flowed more out of his love of the world order than any developed affinity for God.  Jesus had one goal in mind and it began before birth--go to the Cross and die there.  This is a far cry from the goals and resolutions we hear bandied about in Christian circles and meetings.  Ask a Christian worker or church attender what his or her goals may be and they will never sound like what Jesus settled upon as His clear direction.  If anything, the normal way of Christ was simple day-by-day dependence upon the Father to guide you in what He had where He was.  Jesus  stayed in a town until the Father directed Him away from it, healed those the Father brought Him and taught whoever He was given at the moment.  He didn't set goals for attendance at His Sermon on the Mount and made no resolution to quit drinking or cut down on His calories.  He remained so close to the Father that He just did as He was directed and trusted in the process of Life working within Him.  Nothing frustrates the will of God more than the determination of a Christian to accomplish his set goals without regard for the still small voice entering His world in real time.    Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 NIV