How Satan Tempts Us!
posted on April 17, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Girls, if you’re struggling with temptation, please read this passage below from Rick Warren’s book, Daily Inspiration for the Purpose Driven Life: Scriptures and Reflections from the 40 Days of Purpose. This book is one of my favorites and it’s had a huge impact on my life! It’s something I’d like to share with you!
Love,
Nicole
Written by Rick Warren:
From the Bible we learn that temptation is a four-step process. All temptations follow the same pattern. That’s why Paul said,
“We are very familiar with Satan’s evil schemes.” 2 Corinthians 2:11
Step one, Satan identifies a desire inside of you. Temptation always starts with your mind.
Jesus said, “For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within.” Mark 7:21-23
“There is a whole [army] of evil desires within you.” James 4:1
Step two is doubt. Satan tries to get you to doubt what God has said about sin.
“Watch out! Don’t let evil thoughts or doubts make any of you turn from the living God.” Hebrews 3:12
Step three is destruction. Satan is incapable of telling the truth. He offers his lie to replace what God has already said in his Word.
Jesus said, “The devil was a murderer from the beginning, not holding the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, he speaks his native language, for her is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
Step four is disobedience. You finally act on the thought you’ve been toying with in your mind.
“We are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires. Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my dear friends!” James 1:14-16
[The above text was taken from Rick Warren's Daily Inspiration for the Purpose Driven Life: Scriptures and Reflections from the 40 Days of Purpose, which is available at retail stores nationwide. Read this passage and others via Google Books here.]
ALL COMMENTS 23
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Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” is a messed up book… :\ This specific passage is fine, but everything else I’ve seen it no bueno…
i believe you about rick warren i don’t think he is good in my opinion
Hey Nicole, thank you for the article. Please tell me what this means, it’s been bothering me:
I have had a bad temptation with lust of the flesh for about a year and for the first time in 9 days, I haven’t fallen into this temptation, the longest time in nearly a year! I was trying to follow God’s Will but today, I was SO tempted to fall into this temptation that my body felt like it was going to almost start shaking; like there was something strong inside my chest that couldn’t/wouldn’t get out. I prayed and told God that I remember that He promises to not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able…but this temptation was too strong for me to handle it and I fell into it as usual. I’ve just never been this tempted uncontrollably before. This also came along with fear of death and living, being stuck. Do you think some spirit of fear came in me causing all of this? Please answer…It’s really bothering me that I was tempted beyond what I was able…I even prayed and read scripture, but this was the strongest temptation I’ve ever had…
I am praying for you right now!
Thank you Nicole!
This all so true. I don’t want to ever be caught in Satan’s rotten games. Knowing ways to identify it will help. Thanks Nicole!!!
I will try to watch carefully of his tempting now
This is really helpful. Thank you so much Nicole. Since we know how he tempts us,we know how to resist it even more.
you’re welcome Paris!
The picture scares me…
I know the picture is a little scary but just remember Satan was one of the most beautiful angels. That’s why sin is so easy to fall into because it looks so good at that moment
So i have a question. Do you believe Satan can tell what we are thinking? I’m so confused about this, obviously we won’t know until we get to heaven and ask God, but what is your opinion? I’m thinking.. Not. But I’m thinking mabye he can tell other things like he knows your personality and stuff? Idk..
no not unless u let him.
I think he can actually or else he wouldnt be able to identify what to tempt us with
I’m not sure if it’s necessarily Satan himself, because Satan is not God, and not omnipresent. However, there are plenty of demons, and I’m sure they hang around in their own ways. They can’t read our minds, but from watching us throughout life, they can easily gather things about our personality and thoughts from what we say and do (24/7, so that, of course, includes when you’re by yourself, and perhaps doing things you shouldn’t). They can read body language, and know when something sparks your interest (a particular sin you’re tempted by?). Remember that demons are fallen angels, and a lot more intelligent than we know. They’ve been around since the beginning of time, so they’ve seen how people’s minds work over and over. It wouldn’t be difficult for them to analyze us and figure out what’ll make us trip.
Yes I agree! Satan and the demons cannot read our minds but they know A LOT about human behavior by studying us for thousands of years. Satan can’t be in all the places like God but he sends spies to study us and see what we like or what we don’t like etc.
Either way, they cannot do anything without God’s permission
Dear Nicole,
I was looking for an article to post this on and this seemed like a good one. I was on a site called chatroulette and i was talking to these guys. They convinced me to give them my phone number. Later that night one of them texted me asking if I wanted to play a dirty game. I was in the moment and wanting to impress him because he is 17 and I’m fifteen. He got me to send a picture of my breasts and then he sent a picture of his penis. At the moment I thought it was cool, but when I woke up this morning and remembered what had happened I felt sick to my stomach. I deleted all our texts and the pictures. I also deleted his number from my phone. He’s texted me a couple times today but evertime I don’t answer and I delete them. He has yet to text me in a few hours so I think he isn’t interested anymore. Even though I deleted all the evidence I still think about and feel sick. Please tell me what I should do.
you are in a very difficult situation, and I am so sorry about that. I passed this question on to my team of expert writers and relationship coaches, and this is what she said:
This may not be a 17 year old boy, but rather an older man. I wrote an article about internet safety, and you might of opened a very dangerous door and because of this, I think that my advice may seem extreme and difficult, but you truly need help from an adult.
At 15 I’m sure that your phone is through your parents, and my first instinct is to change your phone number. Hopefully, you did not give him any other information (like your last name or address) . The reality is that our Father -our Lord God- already knows, so maybe you might as well let your parents know what you did and ask for forgiveness. You will need them to help you. They may even want to go further and call the police, I don’t know. But I don’t think that a 15 year old can deal with this on her own.
I don’t know the family dynamics. Hopefully her parents are understanding and appreciate her coming clean.
I do hope he is just a 17 year old boy who only knows her (first) name and number and nothing else.
It already seems to have scared her enough so that she never does this again, but I would definitely suggest to her that she never enter a chat site again since it seems that she is easily tempted.
Without having more information, it’s hard to know exactly what would be the right approach, e.g. how much info. she gave, her family dynamics, etc.
I hope that this helps. Also, please read my article “Internet Safety” and watch the movie Trust, which shows this young teenage girl giving out her information to a older boy she thought was only 18, but turned out he’s in his 40s. It is an eye-opener, and it’s good that you learned from this and nothing else happened regarding your safety. I am praying for you.
he does only know my phone number and first name. I have also blocked his number. I know he is 17 because i found him on Facebook to make sure and the website had a webcam so I saw his face on that. I’m not the easily tempted type. I’ve always done what i know is right. I don’t know what got into me that night. Thank you Nicloe and your writers.
and i don’t think i can tell my parents. I’m the youngest and my family and I feel it falls on me to be the perfect one. My cousin has recently moved in with usand she did drugs and alcohol and she usually is a total brat. i feel since she moved I have no room to mess up. This behavior is something that would be expected of her not me.
This really hit me
I think that the most powerful way that Satan has influenced my life is to convince me that certain actions are not wrong. I am afraid to be truthful with myself because I am afraid of what the truth means. But God is the Truth, and to fully accept Him I need to fully accept the truth.
Hi Nicole,
i have had a problem with lust and i guess its really bad. it all started when I dated this guy. He started telling me things ans asking me to do stuff. I didnt at first, but then, he was making moves on me and i gave in a bit. i only really dated him because i thought he was nice and really thoughtful. then he started to get mean. after we broke up, one of his friends promised that he wouldnt do that to me and said he loved me. im going out with him and this relationship is lustfull. he sends me texts and things and i tried telling him it isnt right, but its hard for me to get away from it all. i tried breaking up with him, but he kept coming back. help please?