Don’t Tempt Me

                                 ***Audio Version Available***

Thirteen years ago, I remember going to the theater with my parents to see Tyler Perry’s Temptation (2013). For those who have seen the film, you may remember the plot: Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and her husband Brice (Lance Gross) have been with one another since high school, and they are now dealing with a lull in their marriage. Instead of seeking God for answers, Judith takes an internship at a matchmaking firm and meets a wealthy and charismatic client named Harley (Robbie Jones). Over time, Judith falls for Harley’s charm, good looks, and stacked bank account, and ultimately, she compromises her marriage, job, and health for the temptation before her. 

The film made an impression on me, not because of the ending (I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it), but because it’s so easy to fall for something that looks good on the outside, yet doesn’t serve you down the line. It’s so easy to want to control our destiny. 

To put it in less severe circumstances, I’ll give you an example of something that recently happened to me. My husband and I love sweets. The African American urge to ask for “Something sweet” after dinner is a true problem in our household. So, we made a promise to one another: once a month, we will have a sweet treat, but the rest of the month we’ll focus on healthy pleasantries (fruit, yogurt, etc.). So, we ventured one evening into Insomnia Cookie, and got two cookies each – enjoying our long awaited “treat yo-self’ moment. But then, the next weekend, we found ourselves there again, and then the following weekend, and once more towards the end of the month. Our sugar-free commitment was not only broken once, but three times! We fell for the bait of temptation – instead of saying, “Maybe we should slow down,” we went full throttle: sped through the stop sign, ran the redlight, and crashed on one simple goal we’d promised ourselves. We couldn’t say, “No.”

I’m happy to say, we started fresh the next month (hallelujah), but why do we [human beings], have to always start over? We find ourselves living for the “redo” instead of resisting temptation and discovering a new version of ourselves on the other side. 

In Judges 17, we meet a man named Micha. In a nutshell, Micha thought he could save himself from a curse by admitting to his mother that he’d stolen “eleven hundred pieces of silver” from her (Judges 17: 2), and in turn, Micha’s mother thought she could save her son by taking the silver and making a “wooden idol covered with silver.” (Judges 17:3). Now, making idols went against the Ten Commandments, but “There was no king in Israel at that time; everyone did whatever they wanted.” (Judges 17:6). So, Micha kept that idol, found a young Levite and made him the priest of his house, fell into the temptation of taking matters into his own hands and he believed “Now that I have a Levite as my priest, I know that the Lord will make things go well for me.” (Judges 17:13). Well…they didn’t. Micha’s idol was stolen, his priest left his home, and an entire village was burned down (a peaceful village at that) because of one sin. 

One sin leads to many. It’s a snowball effect: We fall for the bait. We keep falling for it. We dig ourselves into a bigger hole. We have to start all over again. There’s a reason God instructed us to pray “And lead us not into temptation” in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:13); not because we’d be able to resist temptation naturally, but because temptation knocks on our door dressed like the savior, when in fact, it’s our downfall. If we are to resist the temptations of this world, and not let one sin lead us to our downfall, we have to learn how to stop, and remind ourselves of God’s promises. 

My Prayer

Father God, 

Thank you for knowing our missteps before we even take them, and thank you for providing us with spiritual insurance that covers us when we fall. Give us the strength to resist temptation, no matter how great or small, and help us to not condemn ourselves when we stray from your divine path. While it may be easy to do whatever we’d like in times of boredom or fear, please give us the strength to overcome, the vision to see what’s on the other side of our obedience, and the fortitude to persevere. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.