Yesterday I preached on temptation and the importance to pre-decide how you will act when facing temptation. We all think that when we face temptation that we will have enough will power to face it, but the reality is the opposite. Contrary to what we think, we don’t have a bottomless supply of will power. We may have enough will power to not yell at our coworkers, but run out of will power when we face struggles at home. We think we have will power to not eat that piece of cake only to find out that we lack the power to not eat a full sized bag of chips. So how do we deal with temptation? We must pre-decide that we will obey God.
One of the best stories in scripture to illustrate this is the story of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph had a hard life – his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery, he was torn from his home and taken to Egypt, and he was stuck as a house servant to Potiphar. But as much as his life was bad, there was someone that considered his life to be a blessing – Potiphar’s wife!
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
Genesis 39:6-7
It would have been easy for Joseph to give in – after all, he was far from home, she had made the 1st move, and… who would know? AND, didn’t he deserve something like this? After all, his life had been filled with disappointments. His family hated him. He was a slave. Even God seemed to have abandoned him.
Don’t we do that? We use our disappointments to justify our disobedience. We feel like our spouse isn’t meeting our needs, we are ignored, we are unappreciated and so we are justified in giving in to temptation.
But Joseph stays true. He remains faithful. He chooses to continue to follow God. Yet Potiphar’s wife – she doesn’t give up! And one day…
One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
Genesis 39:11-12
Why was Joseph able to withstand temptation? Was it because he was stronger than we are – that he had some kind of ‘super-faith’ that let his willpower win out? No, it was because he had pre-decided to obey God. Joseph decided that it was better to have a good name than to have a good coat.
It’s not our will that keeps us out of temptation, but our pre-decision to follow Christ. How about you – have you pre-decided to obey God?