Eric was struggling with an addiction, and he
knew it. His friends and family members
encouraged him to stop. He agreed that it
would be best for his health and relationships,
but he felt helpless. When others told him how
they had quit their bad habits, he replied, “I’m
happy for you, but I can’t seem to stop! I wish I
had never been tempted in the first place. I
want God to take the desire away right now.”
Immediate deliverance may happen for some,
but most face a daily battle. While we don’t
always understand why the temptation doesn’t
go away, we can turn to God on whatever path
we find ourselves. And perhaps that is the most
important part of our struggle. We learn to
exchange our futile efforts to change for
complete dependence on God.
Jesus was tempted also, just as we are, so He
understands what we’re feeling (Mark 1:13). He
sympathizes with our struggles (Heb. 4:15),
and we can “come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need” (v.16). He also uses
others, including trained professionals, to lean
on along the way.
Whatever battles we may be facing today, we
know this—God loves us much more than we
can imagine, and He is faithful to come to our
assistance.
For Further Thought
Read Matthew 4:1-11 about how Jesus
handled
temptations. Also read 1 Corinthians 10:11-13
to learn how He can help us when we are
tempted.
We are not tempted because we are evil;
we are tempted because we are human.

http://odb.org/?tz=INV

Because sin is entrenched in our spiritual
DNA, we ought not to be unnecessarily
surprised when we find ourselves wanting to
sin, or actually sinning in thought, in word
and in actions. We are all off to a bad start.
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And
in sin my mother conceived me.(Psalm
51:5). “…for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered the
world, and death through sin, and thus
death spread to all men, because all
sinned…” (Romans 5:12-19) We understand
that we come to God through confession of
our sin to Jesus Christ, repenting and
asking Him to forgive us and save us..
We understand that even after we have
received God’s salvation, there will still be
temptation and there will still be sin in our
lives.
We understand that if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(1 John 1:9).
We understand that we do not deliberately
sin just because we know that Jesus Christ
has paid the price for every sin that we will
ever commit. “What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not!” (Romans 6:1-4) We
understand that God’s Holy Spirit lives
within us and if we allow him, He will guide
us into all truth.
Finally, we are told in Hebrews 4:14-16, “…
For we do not have a High Priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but was in all points tempted as we are, yet
without sin…”
But for many of us, in at least one area of
our life, things do not seem as
straightforward as we would like it to be. We
struggle with what appears to be hardened
sins that have taken hold of us and from
which we do not seem to be able to obtain
any relief. These sinful areas in our lives
over which we now seem to have no control
are called strongholds of the Devil. In some
instances, society refers to them as
addictions.
There are two parts to overcoming sinful
addictions and strongholds. Part 1 is to
recognize a stronghold of the Devil in our life
as something for which we must accept
responsibility. It is the Devil’s job to lie to
us, tempt us, to steal from us, to kill us and
to destroy us. That is what we must always
expect from the Devil. But we must also
recognize that, “Let no one say when he is
tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God
cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He
Himself tempt anyone. But each one is
tempted when he is drawn away by his own
desires and enticed. Then, when desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
(James 1:13-15)
The second part to overcoming addictions
and strongholds consists of two
simultaneous processes. The first is the
spiritual, which begins, with confession,
repentance and asking God’s Holy Spirit to
strengthen you. The second process is
practical and involves hard work, over time.
A stronghold is not established overnight
and will not disappear overnight. You have
to destroy the bad habit by habitually
replacing it with something good, and
starving it of the “food” on which it feeds. At
first you may not succeed, but you must rely
on God’s help to persevere. You must claim
the assurance that greater is he that in in
you than he that is in the world.
And after you have won the victory by the
help of God, remember that the easiest way
to avoid a stronghold, is to destroy the first
sign of “little” sins, by confession and
repentance. These are the sins that grow up
into big strongholds and additions. Be
encouraged by the Apostle Paul who
confessed that he found himself habitually
doing the evil that he did not want to do.
Then he gave us the secret for victory.
(Romans 7:14-25; Philippians 4:13)