When the Tempter Comes
by John Osteen
I have a question for you: What do you do when the tempter comes?
That’s an important question you’ll have to ask yourself many times throughout your life.
You see, you have a very real enemy—a tempter—the devil. The Bible describes him this way: “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
You can stick your head in the sand and think you’ll escape his temptation, but he’s not going to leave you alone. The devil’s whole purpose is to destroy you, and you can rest assured that he’s not going to stop trying to achieve his goal.
In Matthew 4, the devil unsuccessfully tempted Jesus. He threw every imaginable enticement at the Lord—food, power, vanity, even suicide. In every instance, the Lord resisted him, and he fled. Since you are one of God’s children, you look like Jesus. Therefore, the devil is going to tempt you too. He’s going to do everything he can to try to discourage and defeat you. First, he’ll tempt you to think wrong. Then he’ll tempt you to plan wrong. Finally, he’ll tempt you to do wrong.
That’s why you must ask yourself a pointed question when you’re faced with a wayward thought or a nagging feeling: “What does God’s Word have to say about this?”
Four Areas of Temptation
I want to touch on four areas where I’ve seen the enemy tempt Christians. He approaches them with harassing ideas that try to take root. If they’re not careful, those wrong thoughts begin to grow. Soon, Christians begin planning their lives around them, and finally they begin acting on them.
It’s a dangerous business, but if you’ll guard your mind and keep it full of the Word of God, you won’t find yourself planning wrong or doing wrong. You’ll stop yourself from going down that rabbit trail, and you’ll overcome the devil’s temptation every time (James 4:7).
No. 1: The Sick Are Tempted to Give Up
Many sick people are tempted to lose faith and give up on their healing. Wouldn’t the enemy love that? He even cloaks that temptation in piety. He gets those struggling with sickness to say, “It must be God’s will for me to accept that this is the end.”
But I challenge you to stand up and say, “I’m not going to die! I’m going to live for God! The devil is not going to have one day of my life!”
When you’re sick and hurting, it’s easy to listen to the enemy. It’s tempting to throw in the towel and believe God doesn’t have a miracle for you, but I promise you—God has never wanted you sick! He wants you to have a miracle.
I know what it is to believe God for healing. My daughter was born with cerebral palsy. The doctors never gave her a chance at a normal life, but thank God, my wife, Dodie, and I heard the words of Jesus. We heard that Jesus was a healer, and we heard that He was the same yesterday, today and forever. We believed those words, and today, our daughter is healed. Praise God!
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