Today, I am going to talk to you about temptation. I am not going to talk about temptation that we already know leads us directly to sin, such as murder, rape, drugs, sexual immorality, swearing. Anyone that claims to be a Christian knows that we cannot continue to practice anything that violates the Ten Commandments, and more. Today I am going to talk about the devil using little temptations to separate you from God. We find in the first chapter of Job, verse 11, Satan says, “Stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Of course, God would not do that, but he gave permission to Satan to test Job. Satan takes Job’s house, kids, all of his possessions, and even his health. Praise God, Job stood the test, as we must also do. With every test or trial that Satan throws at us, he has one overall goal. He wants us to curse God. To put it in easier terms, to quit doing what is righteous and do that which is offensive to God.

I will be submitting several articles about temptation as the paper will allow me to publish. This week’s sneaky temptation is being tempted not to forgive. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I want to keep this to the body of believers in the church. Of course, sinners are not as likely to forgive each other. Too many times, whether on purpose or accidental, we hurt our friends. A lot of the time, it is about stupid stuff. For example, the Pastor didn’t shake my hand, they didn’t like my dress, they made a sour comment about the dessert I brought to the church dinner. To be honest with you, sometimes Christians can act like babies. We wear our feelings on our sleeves. We get worked up about the new color of the choir robes down to what toilet paper we use in the bathrooms. Shame on us for acting like baby, carnal Christians. Then when we are approached by the person that offended us, we say yeah sure, I forgive you. We walk away, but really in our hearts, we hold onto it. That is where Satan wins the battle. Ten years later, we are still bringing up the date and time it happened, even down to what the weather was outside. That is a sin according to the Bible in Colossians (rage, malice, anger, etc.) Jesus himself demanded that we forgive others, or he would not forgive us (Matthew 6). Again, we are talking about the body of believers in the church. We are not telling you to invite a rapist to dinner. Some of these little, petty things will keep you out of heaven because what you do to the least of these, you do unto Jesus. Satan wins because you are cursing your fellow brother or sister in the Lord. You are still harboring hate. So what is the answer? To ask God to fill you with the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), love, joy peace, forbearance, self-control, etc. Now you can forgive, forget, hug one another, give a holy kiss, and be eternal friends in heaven. Remember Corinthians 10:13, God will never allow you to be tempted beyond what you can overcome.