Deep inside, we all know the areas of our lives where we’re most often tempted and fail. And if we repeatedly fall into the same temptations, we can begin to think: ‘What’s the point in asking God for forgiveness? I’m just going to repeat the same sins and have to go back to Him again.’ But God’s forgiveness doesn’t run out when we’ve sinned a certain number of times. When we go to Him with a humble and sorry heart, He loves to forgive us. We can also break the cycle of temptation we find ourselves stuck in. Jesus told His disciples, ‘Pray that you will not fall into temptation’. We can pray before the temptation comes and ask for the strength we need to handle the situation when it arises. When we pray, God strengthens us so that we can overcome the things that are trapping us. We don’t have to worry that God will be angry with us for being tempted; we can approach Him for the help we need. Paul said: ‘Let us…approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need’ (Hebrews 4:16 NIV). Tempting situations can come up regularly, so we need to make sure we’re setting aside time to pray. It can be easy to fill our spare time with things like TV and social media, but it’s far more worthwhile to use that time to pray into the situations we’re facing and about the parts of our lives where we feel weak and vulnerable to temptation. If we keep facing temptation, we need to avoid becoming frustrated at ourselves and remember God’s grace to forgive us. Then we need to rely on His help to overcome our temptation.

What Now?

Set aside 10 minutes each day for the next week to pray about any specific weak areas or temptations in your life.