Dealing with Temptation
By The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams
Readings for March 12, 2024: Reflecting on The Fourth Sunday in Lent
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
In the collect for the First Sunday in Lent we prayed, “Come quickly to help us, who are assaulted by many temptations.” Being frequently tempted may actually seem all right to us! The very word “temptation” has some excitement about it, some attraction to be naughty and “walk on the wild side.” Not at all true!
Temptation has nothing to do with a daring style or a bold imagination. Temptation at its core is an attack on our fundamental identity and mission. It is not merely an inclination to break the rules; it is an impulse to deny who we are, i.e. children of God who are “marked as Christ’s own forever” through our baptism, and it is an attraction to rebel against what we are called to do, i.e. to love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and our neighbors as ourselves.
It is no disgrace to be tempted; in fact, it puts us in company with Jesus. If Jesus was so challenged to renounce his identity and the work he was given to do, should we expect anything different for ourselves? So how are we to deal with temptation?
Our first step is to accept that very fact, to know and to realize that in some real sense, life is a struggle, a battle to claim who we are, a challenge to live into our identity as loving children of God. If we are blind to the reality of our assaults, they will ultimately overcome us.
The second step in dealing with temptation is to know that we cannot resist it without God’s grace. The pull of evil and of sin is too strong, like the force of gravity or the relentless undertow of the ocean, and only “with God’s help” as we promise and invoke in our Baptismal Covenant, can we overcome it. Our faith must be firmly in God and not simply in ourselves.
The third step is to resist temptation calmly and faithfully, taking its threat seriously, but not taking ourselves too seriously. A sense of humor is one of God’s greatest graces! Instead of gritting our teeth against temptation, we just smile and say, “Not today!”
We should also avoid as much as we can the circumstances of temptation, which weaken us, and avail ourselves of whatever helps to strengthen us: participating in worship regularly, having fellowship with other believers, stretching ourselves to serve others, and especially during Lent observing the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Finally, “whenever [we] fall into sin,” as the Prayer Book states matter-of-factly (not “if”), we are to repent and return to the Lord, even being grateful to know more clearly that we do not earn our salvation, but that it is a free gift of God.
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength.
