Temptations.

On a car ride to work today something was stirring inside of me that got me thinking about temptation. I was very confused as to why I was thinking about this topic because I feel like there hasn't been anything or anyone seriously tempting me in my life right now. Well the more I thought about it the more I realized I was wrong.

The ever so popular story about Jesus being tempted by Satan in the desert began to play in my head. I could not figure out why in the world I was thinking about such things. Once again, NOTHING has been tempting me. Let's recap this story together:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
-Matthew 4:1-11

After analyzing each verse I was only more confused, thinking to myself: "Why would God want me to focus on such things, I already know not to be tempted by Satan over things like this." I would never test God by jumping off a building or worshiping Satan. Duh, God (with all do respect of course!) Then after my little sarcastic fit that I was throwing out of frustration, it hit me: I am being tempted by Satan at this very moment. God: Five hundred billion points, Traci: Zero.

In our life we may never come face to face with Satan and he may never directly tell us to follow him but he is way more clever than that. He has many many different ways that he tempts us without even hearing his voice. So I began to see how exactly this temptation has been sinking into my day, and it was only 9AM! I woke up feeling sick, but I knew it was allergies and whenever I have allergies I try to just blow it off. I try not to let allergies over take my day, since in Austin, TX allergies are just as common around here as the cyclists and longhorn t-shirts. Well this morning I got to thinking, my 55 hour work week is right around the corner, I should just rest today, I don't have to go to church. Well, there began temptation #1, self absorption...wanting to be lazy and lay around. Once that temptation began to be more clear, I realized the other things that could be considered temptation by the devil. A couple of examples could include:
1. Falling asleep during my prayer time at night because I don't set aside time while I am not laying in my bed.
2. Putting off my nightly devotional because I am just too tired.
3. Not wanting to invite a certain person to church because I am scared of what they might think of me.
4. Not participating in service projects because I don't know anyone else in the group.
5. Not being willing to serve because after all I do work two jobs and I am just too tired.

Do you struggle with some of these things as well? Have you ever viewed them as temptations from the devil or do you just see them as daily struggles? I have seen them just as daily struggles, like little speed bumps that just slow us down on the road trip of christianity. I think God was trying to teach me to view these things as temptations, things that have power to ruin our relationship with him. When we skip out on our quality time with the Lord we become weak, and our well runs dry. We may never encounter the devil speaking to us and demanding us to reject the name of Jesus, but we will encounter him on a daily basis telling us that we are just too tired, too scared or not enough! We are enough to do the will of God, we just need to get over the tiredness in our life to see that. We may be physically tired and want to skip over those things but when we take the time to become spiritually renewed it begins to replace our physical discomfort.