TEMPTATION—2

“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

“Pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Luke 22.40, 46

Jesus warned the disciples twice to pray about temptation.

And so should we, maybe more than twice?!

The temptations that are most deadly to us are those that destroy our relationships with others.

Often these temptations center around our desire to be exalted.

We also find envy and jealousy rising up within us when others get what we want.

James tells us that these selfish ambitions and motivations are

“earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.”

adding that

“disorder and every evil practice”

in our relationships come from the disorder and evil within our hearts:

If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts,

do not boast about it or deny the truth.

Such 'wisdom'...is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition,

there you find disorder and every evil practice.

James 3.14-16

Jesus says the same thing:

From within, out of men's heart, come evil thoughts,...”

(here there follows a list of seventeen disorderly, evil practices.)

Mark 7.14-23

James says our prayers must be refocused on our hearts as the source of our troubles:

What causes fights and quarrels among you?

Don't these come from you desires that battle within you?

You want something, but don't get it.

You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. 

You quarrel and fight. 

You do not have, because you do not ask God. 

When you ask, you do not receive,

because you ask with wrong motives,

that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4.1-3

It is our own inward enemies that we are tempted to unleash against others.

We must pray to recognize, confess, repent, and submit to the cleansing, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

The heart's evil thoughts motives are the target of the “spiritual warfare” of the Holy Spirit as we read Scripture.

“The word of God...judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Hebrews 4.12

The Psalms begin by admonishing us to meditate upon the Word of God in order to identify the

“wicked" (troubling),

“sinful” (failing, neglectful), and

“scornful” (critical, condemning),

(Psalm 1.1-2)

forces that come from within us.

Near the end, the Psalms urge us to pray

“Search me O God, and know my heart;

try me and know my thoughts.

See3 if there is any wicked (troubled, troubling) way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

(139.23-24)