Uprooting the source of temptation

| By PKD Lee |

Jesus said in Matt 15:19 “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:10, “ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

James says in James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.“

The root of sin is in the heart or the desires we have which could have different sources, but ultimately controls us. It could be from our fleshly lusts, it could be from our intellectual desire to know, it could be from our emotional desire for things.

We begin to trust these things of the world for happiness and contentment rather than God. As a sceptic would say, God cannot feed me, I have to fend for myself. But, without God empowering me and helping me, I cannot even feed myself on my own efforts.

If I want to rid myself of temptations. I need to let go of these desires for things. Things are not bad in themselves, but dependence on things rather than on God is where these things become gods in our life.

So, Satan telling Jesus to make stones into bread was not wrong in itself, as we see in the feeding of the 4000 and the 5000. But, to do it since you are feeling hungry rather than because God tells you to go ahead makes it an error.

If I am living for God, sin is not just breaking of laws, but not doing what God wants me to be doing. So Jesus’ reply is apt - I do not live by bread but by the word of God.

In other words, I seek out the will of God rather than meeting my need, and letting these needs control my life. Can we put our desire for things in it proper place, before the feet of God?

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