Fix your eyes on Jesus when you're tempted

Temptation. A new one comes every day of the week. Tomorrow is Sunday morning, and I'm here in the house all alone for the weekend -- for long, precious hours to work on this book. The deadline is near. Ray is at the National Religious Broadcasters' convention in Washington. He won't know if I go to church or not. Melinda, our secretary, would normally be there, but she and John are out of town for the weekend. She wouldn't know. The children are all involved in ministries in their own churches. They wouldn't know. The church has two morning services; each of my friends would think I'd gone to the other one. And here's the real cruncher: I just got the worst haircut of my entire life. Lord, this once, couldn't I just stay holed up at home and keep writing about everybody's fixing their eyes on You? Temptation! Words from my own book Up with Worship come back to haunt me: Worship is fundamentally an offering . . . . Back in Old Testament days it was clear to see that worship involved giving. You came to the tabernacle or temple with your offering in your hand, or in your arms! -- lugging it, or dragging it, maybe. It might have been wheat or oil, but often it was a sheep or goat or young bull . . . . And this is what worship still means today. Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise . . . ." The praise is to be continuous -- which sometimes means inconvenient. It will take effort . . . . Sometimes you may be critically busy -- when every minute of the day is precious, to get something done. Well, drag that lamb of two hours' time, and come to God's house. . . . Bring to Him your consistent, sacrificial gift of worship. Drag that lamb! I hate it when my own words order me around. (Once Ray was driving on the freeway, feeling depressed. He turned on the radio and his own voice said, "CHEER UP!" Ray scoffed, "Yeah, yeah, but what do you know about it?") I'm going to church, of course. Would a cover-everything hat help? Well, I mustn't fix my eyes on myself . . . Late Sunday morning. Between my last words and now, I was hit with another, far more insidious temptation. Last night I got into bed putting together in my head a story for this book which was almost true, but ever-so-slightly embellished -- I could see in my mind's eye it would look just right on paper. And there on television was an exposé of an itinerant preacher/healer who for years has "preached the Word" and cried "Praise Jesus" with the best of them. He's done it all. But now he's finally confessing that he's never even had a leaning toward the Christian religion! So after years of fraud, he's finally getting out of "the business." Saddened and shocked, I vowed to straighten out my story, and I recommitted myself to honesty before the Lord in every part of me. This morning the choir sang "Panis Angelicus": And in temptation's hour, Save through Thy mighty power . . . And during the quiet of the prelude, my eyes had fallen on Psalm 119:29-30: Keep me from deceitful ways . . . I have chosen the way of truth. The sacrificial animals of Leviticus 1:9 were washed in their inner parts, to be "pleasing to the Lord." How much more, then, will the blood of Christ . . . cleanse our consciences . . . so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14) Are you tempted right now, and your mind is coaxing you to yield? Or your emotions are strongly pulling you to yield? Or your body is screaming at you to yield? Quick - force those eyes of yours to be fixed on Jesus. He was tempted, too, you know. And notice three things: 1. God didn't cause Jesus' temptations, but He did allow them. "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil" (Matthew 4:1). 2. His temptations were truly painful. "He . . . suffered when he was tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). 3. But He never once yielded. "We have [a High Priest] who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). And look at the same three things about your own temptations: 1. God doesn't cause them, but He does allow them. "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me' . . . Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed" (James 1:13-14). Be careful about that old saw, "You can't keep the birds from landing on your head -- just don't let them build a nest in your hair." We use it to say, "It's no big deal if I'm tempted. Jesus was tempted, too." Listen, you're not Jesus! Flap your arms! When they see your head or mine, they're positively tempted to land on us! These proverbial buzzards see inside of us our "evil desire," as James says, and thy chirp, "Come on, everybody, that sucker's an easy touch. We can settle in there for sure." Then, as james goes on to say, the evil desire leads to sin, and the sin leads to death! And it all began with what we thought was a harmless little temptation. 2. Your temptations, like Jesus', are truly painful. Run from them! Avoid them! Don't hang out where they might be! Jesus says, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation" (Matthew 26:41). Over four hundred years ago Francis Sales wrote, As soon as you perceive yourself tempted, follow the example of children when they see a wolf or a bear in the country, for they immediately run into the arms of their father or mother . . . . Run in spirit to embrace the holy cross, as if you saw our Savior Jesus Christ crucified before you. Protest that you never will consent to the temptation, implore his assistance against it, and still refuse you consent as long as the temptation shall continue. But . . . look not the temptation in the face, but look only to our Lord.2 Why? Because every time you fix your eyes on the temptation, you'll be that much weaker and more apt to yield. "When the woman saw . . . the fruit of the tree . . . she took . . . it" (Genesis 3:6). "Achan . . . saw . . . the plunder . . . and . . . took them" (Joshua 7:20-21). "David . . . saw a woman . . . and took her" (2 Samuel 11:2, KJV). Watch, for instance, what you absorb of the daily news. Dirty people love dirt; that's why so much of the news is about dirt. So you, too, take it into your mind, you picture it, you imagine it . . . Now your own mind is dirty as well. And from a dirty mind spring dirty acts. The news media are powerful transmitters of moral diseases. If you're struggling with such a big temptation that you're frightened, rush to a godly older person for counsel. Even the humiliation of confessing the temptation will strengthen you against it. But it's not usually the big temptations that undo us, it's the lesser ones. It's not usually the wolves and bears that defeat us, it's the flies! Which is harder for you to resist, murder or anger? Adultery or those exciting but treacherous little flirtations? Stealing or coveting? Vile actions or vile thoughts? Mafia connections or craftiness and scheming? Oh, the flies, the flies! Eventually they can make you feel as corrupted as if you were a chronic liar or a drunk. This is all-out war. As long as you live, don't let down your guard. But here's the good news: 3. You don't have to yield. "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). "Because [Jesus] himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). So what do you do when you're tempted? You fix your eyes not on the temptation, but on Jesus. Then you'll "find grace to help . . . in [your] time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Dear Herman Wobbema! He knew that grace. Herman was a beautiful older man in our Lake Avenue Church, almost stone deaf, with a million-dollar smile. Once in the middle of an evening service Ray suddenly held a microphone right to Herman's mouth; he was sitting in an aisle seat. Unforewarned, Herman said gently into the mike, "Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home." He never heard what followed: the whole congregation's spontaneous applause. ______________ 1. Up with Worship, pp. 47-48. 2. Frances de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life, pp. 298-299. * * * * * Why don't you pray, O Father, I'd like to end my life like that! You know my dangers, my toils, my snares -- but You promised they'll never be more than I can bear. O Jesus, for courage and victory I call on Your grace. I fix my eyes on You. Amen.