Temptation

Temptation The Enemy's Ground Is Not Good Testing Ground
At an evangelistic meeting someone was converted. The next day one who was at the meeting saw the newly converted man put his hand into a chicken coop. "Say," called the older Christian, "I thought you were converted last night." Of course, it was evident that he was about to steal a chicken. His answer was, "I was converted sir, certainly I am, but I am just trying out the strength of my resolution." The wise reply of the older Christian was, "It is safer to fight Satan on your own ground than on his."

Seat Belts Save Lives
Temptation is a pretty common experience-and our batting average for resisting it is not always impressive.
Our experiences are a lot like the seat belts on cars a few years ago. If we did not fasten them, that infernal buzzer kept annoying us. We knew that the seat belts were not made to hurt us or unnecessarily restrict us. They were there to keep us safe, and the buzzer was our friend. But instead of doing what we knew was probably best for us, we would stick the belts behind us, fasten them and thus shut off the buzzer that was reminding us to do the safe thing.
We Christians know deep down inside what is right. We even know that the right thing is the best thing for us. And God coaches us from the inside with His "buzzer," the Holy Spirit, to help us resist temptation. But we often choose to ignore the buzzer and look for a way to shut it off. We ignore God's signal and follow our own, even though experience shows us that things get messed up when we do not listen to Him. We need to understand a little more about how Satan uses temptation and how we can win the battle. An understanding of the kinds of strategies Satan uses to defeat us can help us overcome temptation.