Up to His Old Tricks

Scott Beyer
05/30/22 - Bulletin

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man…” (1 Corinthians 10:13a)

The devil only has so many tricks of temptation.  He isn’t inventing new ones, just recycling and repackaging the old ones.  That means that temptation is neither unique nor exciting.  There is nothing more ordinary that a human facing temptation.  It is as routine as the sun rising.

The beauty of the ordinary is its predictability.  Since temptation is consistently all around us, we can begin to predict it and, therefore, avoid it.  Made bad choices yesterday when you got hungry? Snacks look a lot like spiritual armor tomorrow!

One reason that Christians should take fearless moral inventory of themselves is because self-awareness leads to a better ability to predict our triggers for sin.  The devil doesn’t have any new tricks, and if you can see them coming, you can avoid many of the traps he likes to set.  Journal your life for a week or two, and you will be surprised at how quickly the patterns emerge.

When you see the patterns, you also see the path to better outcomes.

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