Found Charles Stanley preaching on the Christian Channel tonight. He was preaching about temptation and suggested temptation is anything that negatively impacts my relationship with God. What a good description.
For me, two big issues are trusting God (especially in relation to the future) and being patient - there are lots of things that tempt me to stop trusting Him and to be impatient. Something else Charles mentioned is that sometimes we can be tempted to desire something that God desires for us in our timing instead of His - the problem may be that we want it now, but God wants it later. It was an excellent sermon.
After hearing him preach, thought I'd take a look at the In Touch website, and came across his sermon notes on Psalm 37 about God giving us the desires of our hearts. Thought this was interesting after my post earlier today. I particularly struggle with D and E of the principles that he suggests will lead to obtaining our heart's desires - rest in Him, and wait patiently for God. Not that I disagree, I just find these two things very hard to do!!
He also stresses the importance of asking God to make my desires conform to His will, which I agree Psalm 37:4 is talking about. As I delight in God (not anything or anyone else), He will transform my desires so that they are in line with His.
As Charles emphasised at the end of his message tonight, we need to be constantly soaking ourselves in God's Word and allowing Him to transform our thinking by His Spirit as we read His Word. This is the way to be prepared so that we don't give in to our temptations... the way for me to grow in trust and patience.
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