Temptation

As people we are all tempted by the evil one. If we think that we are not tempted then we are decieved and being lead by forces that we are not aware of and frankly are under their power.

The desert fathers were tempted and we have records of their battles with demons and the evil one. Benedict doesn't recommend moving into seclusion as a monk until one has been seasoned in community. It is not surprising that the desert fathers were tempted in the desert, Christ was lead into the desert and was tempted. Again if Christ was tempted what makes us think that we won't be tempted???

The first movement is to acknowledge that fact that we will be tempted to live and act in ways that are contrary to God's ways and are not life giving. Then we need to become self aware as to how we are tempted; to discover what are the areas that we are weak in. For some it will be areas of pride, others it will be greed and others lust and still others addictions; you get the idea.

Once we are aware of our temptations then we can enter into them. One of the things that often happens is that we fight them head on and fail, sometimes repeatedly. This leads to another way that the enemy gets us, we despair. We begin a pattern of performance spirituality and begin to live to fix or overcome our problem. This cycle can be devastating to our interior life because we begin to understand God's love in terms of our ability to overcome and master our tempations.

The fact is that we will always have some temptations and times when we fail...We need to simply recieve God's love and mercy in our failings and in our temptations. Recieving forgiveness, mercy and love makes us stand naked before God, powerless and yet utterly loved in who we are....

Christ's forgiveness is the power to live with the contradictions that are our life. Luther says that we are both saint and sinner. Humility is the ability to see ourselves truthfully which is to know that we are mass of contradictions. I like to say that there are always weeds in our garden.. There are vegetables there too....

What I've found is that the mercy of God has the power to help overcome temptations, to fall into them less often and to not let them destroy us when we do. We can come to confession, recieve forgiveness and the power to begin again. It is always grace and it is grace that has the power to heal and open up new life...

Seems paradoxical and it is....

As we spend more time with God and grow deeper in our sense of being loved and understand who we really are in Christ it will shape our heart, give us a new sense of self and more power to fight temptation.

Other things we can do are to work on disciplines of abstince in areas we can have a greater success and this too will give a better ability to say no...