Tempt Your Temptations

Dear lovely people,

Merriam Webster defines Temptation as “a strong urge or desire to have or do something and especially something that is bad, wrong, or unwise.” Wikipedia breaks it further down considering temptation to be “the desire to perform an action that one may enjoy immediately or in the short term but will probably later regret. In the context of some religions, temptation is the inclination to sin.”

Going by these definitions, Temptation is bad. My question remains; is temptation really bad as such? Ngobesing Suh Romanus says “temptation is an enemy to success. If you want to succeed, beware of temptation. Many have been destroyed because they failed to stand tall against temptation.”

“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.” says C.S. Lewis.

Irrespective of your faith, it’s easy to seek God when times are tough. But most Christians relax when things are good. It could have happened to Joseph in the Bible, because in one inspired moment, God took him from rags to riches and from the pit to the palace. What a change in circumstances for young Joseph! He had come from the bottom of a dry cistern in the desert, and from being sold as a slave in Egypt, and was now a very successful manager on the estate of one of Egypt’s top officials. He was respected. He was trusted. But success brings other challenges. The higher up one rises the further one has to fall, and others may well try to pull you down. Those with responsibilities or status often become the focus of criticism. No one seems to have been criticising Joseph but popularity also has other inherent dangers. And Joseph was very popular.

Now get me straight here! What if I tell you that you can turnaround the definition and your understanding of temptation to make it positive? Notice that it’s the definition of the word that makes it bad and not the adrenaline that is pumped into your system once you get convinced that you are under temptation. What if you start becoming tempted to do just the right things that take you closer to your goals? You would have through your actions redefined temptation do you get the point?

There is a progression in temptation. It often starts with just a look. Potiphar’s wife “took notice of Joseph”. She looked at him and then looked again – in a way that a married woman should not look at another man. Her looking turned into lustful thoughts, and it was not long before lust took over. She forgot modesty and unashamedly said to Joseph, “Come to bed with me!” Wow, this lady was a fast mover! Only here, it was in the wrong direction.

 

You need to refuse to allow lustful thoughts to settle in your mind. What if Potiphar’s wife rather took notice of Joseph's dedication rather than his charm? She would probably have recommended Joseph for promotion? We need self-discipline as we stride our rough success pathways. We must refuse the temptation to take short cuts that derail us. Shortcuts feeds us with feelings of lethargy and can become a crippling addiction bringing ruin to our other healthy and precious plans. 

How would Joseph respond to the adulterous suggestions of Potiphar’s wife? Would he take the line of least resistance? “But he refused. ‘With me in charge,’ he told her, ‘my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’” Immorality was part of Egyptian society and Egyptian women were known, at the time, for their loose morals. Joseph could have looked at the culture around him and decided that it was OK to go along with the majority. After all he was now living in Egypt. He could have argued that it was best to do as the Egyptians do. But no, Joseph acted on principle. He made his decision on the basis of what he knew was right and what he knew was wrong. No doubt long before Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph he had made up his mind to keep himself pure and to be pleasing to God, not least in how he related to women

The easiest way to register the success you seek is to be like Joseph once you have an objective in life. Decide that no matter what others around you are saying or doing, by God’s grace, you will keep yourself focused on your dreams. Unless you make up your mind and set boundaries beforehand, when faced by unexpected temptation, it’s not easy to think as clearly or act as decisively as Joseph did. Decency and focus is precious and worth fighting for. If we compromise in these areas we place ourselves outside the will of God and thus, predispose ourselves to failure. His hand of blessing will be withdrawn. We will lose our testimony and our usefulness to the Master.

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear…”—1 Corinthians 10:13. Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else. What you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations— He sustains us in the midst of them.

There's an old Chinese saying that I believe is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."