Toying with Temptation
Do you 'toy with' temptation? If you act carelessly when it comes to the things that tempt you, kind of ignoring them, and then find yourself 'playing with' the thing that is tempting you, you are probably not resisting temptation very well. It is meant to be resisted, not ignored or toyed with at all.
Temptation comes in all forms. It can be something from 'without' such as cookies in the cookie jar 'calling' for you to eat them when you are trying to watch your weight. It can be from 'another' such as when a coworker wants to share some juicy gossip over lunch about your boss. It could even be from 'within' such as when you are feeling down on yourself and overspend on the online store.
Simply defined, temptation is the desire to do something, especially when it is unwise or just plain wrong. Sometimes we try to 'put lipstick on the pig' and tell ourselves the thing we are considering isn't 'all that bad' because you need to be happy once in a while. It doesn't matter the 'shade of lipstick' you try to use to dress up that pig we call sin; it is still sin!
Whenever we toy with temptation, we are allowing it to toy with us. If you are like so many others, there is a point of 'no return' when the temptation overtakes all manner of reason or will-power one may exhibit at other times. This is why God tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee the scene. (James 4:7) We aren't to entertain his wiles, nor are we to consider what he says as trustworthy. We are to resist - not in our own power, but in the power Christ gives when we call upon him for his help.
The more we 'toy with' temptation, forgoing the instruction to allow him to show us a way out of temptation's path, the more we will give into the wiles of our enemy. Just sayin!
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