Posts Tagged ‘Temptation’
Guilt by Association
When I was young, I was spending time with a friend when we found ourselves in a bit of trouble. We were walking past a swimming pool where a group of people had jumped the fence for a night swim. We knew the group of people, so we were chatting with them when we were…
Read MoreAvoid Temptation
Every day we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Sit back and ponder over this verse of the Lord’s Prayer. We are asking God the Father, not just to keep us free from temptation, but to lead us away from temptation. God knows how much temptation we can handle. He…
Read MoreSpiritual Glasses
The past couple of days I have been focusing on the choice between the world and the Church. For some people, it can be difficult to distinguish between the world and the Church. Temptation is experienced. It is not imagined. What the world uses to tempt us can be so convincing, we are blinded to…
Read MoreOvertaken in Sin
In our constant battle against temptation, every morning we awake is another battle. Last night we prayed for forgiveness. This morning we prayed for another chance to ‘get it right’ in our fight against sin. Some days we make it longer than others without sin. Every day we fall in some way further from Christ…
Read More2023 Daily Lenten Journey – Day 9
When an alcoholic awakes, the first thing he thinks about is his next drink. At the same time, for those alcoholics I know, he understands he doesn’t want to be an alcoholic. He doesn’t want to drink, but most days, the temptation is greater than he can bear. Every day is the same battle, and…
Read MoreDarkness Breeds Evil
When I was growing up, I used to hear the expression, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight.” As a teenager I didn’t agree. I would imagine the freedom of hanging out late at night without anyone watching. I imagined we could do anything we wanted without fear of being caught. What I didn’t understand was…
Read MoreThe Struggle Within
Saint Paul understood it well when he said, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7.15) We all ‘want’ to follow Christ, but we struggle to put in place those guarantees that would lead…
Read MoreFrog in Boiling Water
As I was reviewing today’s scripture readings, I realized that Christians ‘back then’ were much more bold in their faith than we are today. Every day we read accounts of martyrs for Christ, the vast majority of them martyred in the first three centuries of the Church. It isn’t that they didn’t sin. They did…
Read MoreGod Doesn’t Expect More from Us Than from Himself
I hear it all the time, or something like it. “I can’t do that. I’m not perfect like God.” It is so easy to turn our attention away from the life God desires for us. It isn’t that we don’t want to follow God. Our soul is most definitely called by God, and deep down…
Read MoreTemptation
There are two types of temptation in my estimation. One form of temptation is experienced through the normal routine of life. We walk by something that is forbidden and our mind considers what it would be like to taste the forbidden fruit. In my case it isn’t fruit; it is dessert. It can be just…
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