In point-form, some steps to help you (really it's for me, but feel free to grab onto these if you need them as much as I do today) pray your way through temptation:
1. Pray about your issue constantly - even at times when you don't feel as though you're struggling. When you wake up, before moving from your bed, remind God (and yourself) that you are prone to being tempted (whether it be yelling at your children, smoking, using foul words, gossipping - just sharing a nasty laundry list with y'all, though God and I kicked the smoking one many, many years ago), and ask Him to help you. Keep on reminding Him all day. It's not that He needs reminding, but we need to remember that He is the only help for our struggles.
...pray continually ~1 Thessalonians 5:172. Pray the Word of God the very moment you find yourself staring temptation in the face. It helps to write out Scriptures that speak to your struggle on index cards, so you have God's specific Words handy. Try using a concordance and writing out verses on: temptation, sin, perseverance, faith, holiness, trials, struggle, submission, and so on. If you believe the Bible addresses your issue specifically (such as immorality or anger), look for verses on those topics as well.
In Matthew 4, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert and the devil tried to tempt Him into sinning against His Father. Jesus' reply to each suggestion of the devil was,
It is written...3. Seek trusted people to pray for you. We are not in the battle against evil on our own - we have brothers and sisters who can stand beside us.
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. ~James 5:164. Remember that at each juncture, you have a choice. You can choose to submit yourself to temptation (and thus to sin), or you can submit yourself to Christ.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ~James 4:7
...God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. ~1 Corinthians 10:13
In my study on the book of James this month it is pointed out: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, remember, no temptation comes from God but from our DESIRES, only when we act on these desires do we sin and sin leads to death! This made me look at what I desired! I will be thinking (praying) pretty hard the next time I have the DESIRE to...gossip, yell at my kids, or what ever vice we have. Great points, I will be printing those and putting them in my desk for reference!
ReplyDeleteThank you sis for such an encouraging and transparent blog. I feel so lonely in my struggle with anger when it comes to my kids. I'm seriously burnt out and just desperate to see the hand of God in this area. How can I make a toddler obey me who doesn't care about time outs, loss of privileges, spankings, nothing! The only thing he responds to is yelling. I feel so powerless. I keep holding on to the fact that God doesn't make mistakes but I feel like a absolute failure of a parent. Please pray for me and continue blogging.
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