Vulnerability & Availability: The perfect trap

Ever been in the wrong place, at the wrong time and found yourself doing the very thing you don’t want to do? Yeah, me neither *cough*.

The reality is, we all find ourselves in places and spaces we prefer not to be in, doing or saying things we later regret, needing to apologise and/or repent.

Perhaps one of the most encouraging scriptures, yet also kind of discouraging, is when Paul makes this exact confession. It’s encouraging because it normalises our struggle, making us feel sane, while revealing that even the great apostle Paul continued to wrestle with his flesh. Yet it is also discouraging, reminding us of how often we fall and fail. Ultimately, it should be embraced for it’s encouragement though, as Paul points us back to the Savior; so let’s look at it together;

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭15‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I feel this tension so deeply, and I suspect you do as well, ‘for I delight in the law of God in my inner being’ yet at times my words and actions deny this delight; no wonder Paul calls himself ‘wretched’!

We know the right and the good thing to do.

We know the lovely and noble things to set our minds and thoughts upon.

We know the pleasant and uplifting words we ought to speak… yet we do not always think, act and speak as our born again spirit desires to.

In deep places of our heart and mind, there is a wrestle, a fight over “who” gets to express themself; the new creation remade in the image of Christ overflowing with life, or the former, old man, dead in sin and selfishness. This is the ‘good fight’ we must strive to win, the battlefield we must dominate and bring under our rule; under Christ’ rule.

Inside the heart of each believer burns the question that D.C Talk laid bare in their song, What if I stumble?

What if I stumble
What if I fall?
What if I lose my step
And I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue
When my walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble
And what if I fall?

The answer; we pray.

When we fail; pray

Jesus taught his disciples to pray a daily prayer, often called ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, but should be better understood as ‘the Disciple’s Prayer’, because it is a template for us to use to shape our daily prayers.

“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

There is so much comfort in this prayer, for here we discover that Jesus is neither repelled nor surprised by our daily need for repentance and realignment. This by no means is an endorsement of sin, nor is it permission to have a blasé attitude towards sin as if it’s not that big of a deal.

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? – Romans 6:1b-3

Our sin is the only reason the Son of God was nailed to a cross, and as Stuart Townsend’s song ‘How Deep the Father’s Love for Us’ puts it, it was my sin that held him there. Sin is serious. Not trivial. But Jesus offers us His Grace & mercy.

Through this model prayer, Jesus teaches us that we will have daily temptations, daily wrestles, daily opportunities to be persuaded by the evil one, and worse still, by our wicked desires lurking within our flesh. But Jesus also teaches us us that there is daily grace, and daily forgiveness and that the throne room of heaven is not closed to us when we fail and fall.

Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us of the most glorious truth! The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

This model prayer also teaches us that God would rather hear us call him Father, since we are his children, asking for the coming of his Kingdom before we raise the issues of our failures and sin. Read that again. Based on the format of the model prayer, God would rather hear us call him Father, since we are his children, asking for the coming of his Kingdom before we raise the issues of our failures and sin. Our Father wants us to press into our relationship with Him before the confession of sin. Why? Because we need to know that who we are confessing to is our Father, not some unmerciful judge or tyrant in the sky that we hope got of bed happy this morning. His love never ceases and his mercies are new each morning, and we call him Father!

Traps & Snares

The prayer Jesus taught us to pray reveals a few more things, namely that the evil one is after us, always looking for ways to trap us in sin. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6 that our battle, our main fight, is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of darkness that operate according the evil and wicked desires of the god of this world. These dark forces, however, do not often attack us directly, but indirectly.

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The ‘world’ is not just this blue globe we’re on, with dirt and sea, animals and trees. The ‘world’ is also the spiritual location within which our lives exist, like the literal atmosphere, the ‘world’ the unseen domain that covers the earth. It is the ‘world’ that is in rebellion against God and is under the influence of the enemy, and it is the ‘domain of darkness’ (Col 1:13) that we have been rescued from. When Jesus prayed that we would be in the world but not of the world, this is what he meant. We have not been removed from this spiritual atmosphere, or realm, but we a no longer members or citizens of it.

The traps the enemy tries to snare us in are part of the ‘world’. They exist in the systems and structures of human civilisation that are not aligned with the Kingdom of God. Lust, greed, selfishness, violence, abuse, gluttony, sexual immorality, pride… these are the traps the world has set up all around us, traps we must navigate carefully and do our best to avoid.

How to avoid the trap

The prayer of Jesus shows us that we are meant to avoid the traps by seeking first our Father, then secondly, His Kingdom.

When we are truly seeking and enjoying God as our Father, and then seeking the coming of His kingdom in and through our lives, we find ourselves being led by his spirit into holiness and purity. However, when we take our eyes off the Father and look elsewhere for validation, acceptance and security, we are tempted to first seek our kingdom instead of the Father’s kingdom. Instead of praying ‘your kingdom come’, we stop praying and we simply look to our own needs, wants and desires. James has some sobering words of insight to offer;

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

It is never God testing us with temptation. God does not deliver a six-pack of beer to your front door when you’re struggling to break an addiction to alcohol. God doesn’t incite rage and violence in your heart when the traffic is crazy and you’ve had all your buttons pushed at work all day.

No one can say God is tempting me.

Temptation is this: when the ‘world’ baits you with the opportunity to indulge in what your old nature desires. Evil desires do not live within the new, born-again heart, they belong to the old nature that must continuously be ‘put to death’ (Colossians 3). This definition of temptation is a 2-edged sword. On one hand, it is the world that tempts us, but on the other hand, it is the crooked desires lurking within us that respond to the temptation. It takes two to tango. This means that if we can kill off these unholy desires, then the world has nothing to get to us with; if there’s no fish in the pond(desire), then the bait won’t work; it can’t work.

This is how we understand that Jesus was without sin. He had no evil desires within him, no place where the world could get at him or trap him up, just recall Jesus own words as recorded by John;

“…the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father...”
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭30‬-‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Or as Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase, ‘The Message’; the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me

The chief and ruler of the ‘world’ was coming, but there was nothing within the heart of Jesus that the devil could entice, nothing he could lay claim to, no dark corner to expose, no buttons to press or wicked desires to exploit, no fish to bait. BUT… notice the but? But I do as the Father has commanded me, said Jesus.

Jesus fostered his relationship with the Father first, then sought the coming of the Kingdom second, and by his perfect obedience, he maintained a clean and clear heart that the devil could not touch or manipulate. This is the template.

What about me and you? Yeah, we’re not there yet, are we? So Jesus taught us to pray for forgiveness, to ask to be led by God away from temptation, and seek to be strengthened by our Father in our efforts to resist evil only after we first take time to seek the Father and the coming of his kingdom.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [that you need to live your daily life well] will be added to you – Matthew 6:23

Good hunters set Unique traps

As a hunter myself, I want to know the regular patterns of behaviour of my prey, whether I’m spearfishing, chasing Kingfish and Snapper, or bow hunting, targeting deer or goats, I need to know what the animals usually do, where they usually go and how they usually behave so I can wait in ambush for them at the right place and time. I need to be able to read the signs, markings, and movements of the animals so I can anticipate when they are most vulnerable, and available.

The traps of the world are the same, except we are the prey and the enemy is targeting us based on our predictable and weak moments.

If you want to catch a rabbit, don’t use a lobster pot.

The system of the world is set up to war against your heart, and the forces of darkness work tirelessly to get the right kinds of traps in front of you. Each of us is prone to uniquely different temptations, and these weaknesses will be the result of multiple intersecting factors: your upbringing, your personality, your place in the world, your gender, what you have access to, or don’t, the trauma you have experienced, your vices, coping mechanisms, prefered method of escapism, and as believers, the gifts God has given us can also become an area of temptation.

The enemy does not just want to tempt you ad-hoc, he wants to tempt you in ways that will lead to taking you out of active service in the Kingdom of God; he wants to tempt you in ways that will undermine your integrity as a believer because he wants to disarm and disable your faith, rendering it ineffective and fruitless; the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.

What is a temptation to you, however, may not be tempting to me, just as what I struggle to resist may not be something you find hard to resist at all. One might struggle with bursts of anger, yet another is always cool, calm and in control yet struggles with greed and gluttony. Another person struggles with wandering eyes and lust, while someone else is oblivious to such things and struggles more with fear and anxiety about money. We are all tempted, and we are all weak, so we ought not to judge each other, but rather encourage, build and lift one another up knowing we’re ultimately all in the same sinking boat of sin needing a saviour.

James 3:2 reminds us that we all stumble in many ways, and Proverbs 24:16 encourages us that for a righteous man may fall seven times
And rise again. We all stumble, but the righteousness of Christ compels us to get back up, dust ourselves and each other off, repent, forgive and press ahead by returning to… Our Father, hallowed is your name.

Needless to say, however, for those are serious about wanting to ‘put their flesh to death’ and live lives of holiness and purity, it is important that we know our weaknesses so we can build systems and patterns of living that strengthen us against the unique temptations that come our way. It’s just as important to invite your closest Christian friends, spouse, brothers/sisters to speak into your life and help you since as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens his friend (Proverbs 27:17). I recently wrote an article dedicated to Jesus instructions on removing planks from our own eyes, and how we ought to help remove specs from the eyes of each other, check it out here.

Some ways of avoiding temptation are pretty straightforward, if you’re an alcoholic, don’t work in a bar pouring drinks all day, that’s an obvious one. The traps the enemy sets for us are usually not so obvious. They are subtle, they blend in, they are camouflaged and not easily detected. The bait lures us, draws us in and then… Snap!! The trap is triggered and we’ve taken the bait; shouted at them again, raised a fist, swore at them, had a third helping, ate the whole packet, drank one too many, scrolled too far, looked at the wrong images/videos, boasted again, got jealous, looked down at someone, held back a resource, failed to be generous, used sharp words instead of being gentle… the list goes on, doesn’t it?

Consider; When are you vulnerable, and when are you available to the temptations of the enemy? At night? With a certain group of friends? Online? In the morning before coffee?

Some other helpful questions might be: where do I fail regularly? What sin am I often asking God to forgive? When does this happen? What is my mood, what time of day, where am I, and so on? Don’t assault yourself with every failure, just ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and to reveal to you the one or two things he wants you to be aware of and build up your resistance to. This exercise is designed to highlight areas to strengthen, not areas to beat yourself up in.

Perhaps the most important question you can be asking is, how could spending time with the Father and seeking first his Kingdom become the remedy for my struggle with _______? Because any effort we put into cutting off our sin that comes from only ourselves and not from the Father will be futile at best.

Let me share an encouraging quote from the sage, Andrew Murray, from his daily devotional Abide in Christ;

You are not under the law, with its demanding “do”, but under grace, with its blessed “believe” what Christ will do for you. And if the question is asked, “but surely there is something for us to do,” the answer is, “our doing and working are but the fruit of Christ’s work in us”. It is when the soul becomes utterly passive, looking and resting on what Christ is to do, that its energies are stirred to their highest activity, and we work most effectively because we know that he works in us. It is as we see the words “In Me” the mighty energies of love reaching out after us to have us and to hold us, that all the strength of our will is awakened to abide in him.

Abide, our secret power

Trukt this is our greatest weapon against temptation and sin, that we abide in Christ. Just as we pray ‘Our Father’ and turn our attention to Him and His Kingdom, we pray this prayer from the position of being in Christ (a great study you can do is to look at all the times Paul says ‘in him’ in his letter to the Ephesians).

Just consider your own life for a moment, those times when you slip up, give in, make a bad move… how conscious were you in that very moment that your life was hidden in Christ? I know when mess up and make a bad choice, say a harsh word or do something I know I should not do, that my awareness of my abiding in Christ is far from my mind.

Reminding ourselves who we are and where we are, born again, adopted and in Christ, is our greatest strategy against temptation. It is not in ‘trying hard’, but as Murray suggests, it is our awareness of being in Christ that stirs our energy for holiness to its highest activity and strength.

The question then, if one wants to follow this train logically, is to ask; why am I not more aware that I am abiding in Christ? Read that again and pause for a moment. Chew on it.

Taking time to pause, to meditate, to consider, to mull over the riches and mercy of God given to us in Christ is like bread for the soul! We must feed on His Gospel or whither and become weak in our efforts of resistance.

Our heart and mind has a default setting of ‘drifting’, and it happens without attention, without effort and without consent. It’s what we do when we’re not intentionally setting our heart and affection on Christ. No one drifts into increased levels of holiness, we only ever drift away. As Hebrews 2:1 warns us, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

One of Paul’s companions experienced this very sad and predictable fate, his name was Demas. Just look at the few mentions Demas received in scripture. In the first two instances, Demas is a dear friend and fellow worker among the ranks of Paul, Luke and Mark. In the third and final mention, that has all changed:

• Colossians 4:4 – Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.
• Philemon 1:23-24 – Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.
• 2 Timothy 4:10 – Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.

The world set its traps for Demas, and instead of remaining in Christ, instead of clinging to the abiding and nourishing love and grace of the Saviour, Demas chose instead to love the world, and sadly, he left Paul and was not mentioned in scripture again.

This is what John also warns us about, in 1 John 2:15; Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Demas was one of many who stumble, the difference is whether or not we wake up in the new mercies of God and pray, Our Father, who art in heaven…

David took Bathsheba for himself & murdered her husband, Moses killed an Egyptian, Jacob tricked and defrauded his brother, Eve took the forbidden fruit, Lot’s daughters got their father drunk and took advantage of him, Solomon took foreign wives, Elijah wished himself dead, Jonah sailed to Tarshish instead of Nineveh, Peter denied Christ, Judas betrayed Christ and all the apostles except John fled from Christ when he was arrested and crucified, Paul approved of Stephen’s murder, and the New Testament Church needed correction after correction, letter after letter….

The list of those who stumble is long indeed. Even just this week I read another article of a prominent Bible Teacher and Conference speaker being stood down for moral failure. The best and the worst of us have all failed Christ at some point, but even when we are not faithful, he is faithful, for he cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:13).

There is a fountain of grace flowing from the throne of heaven towards us so that each day his mercies are new.

There is more than enough forgiveness for every soul and their every sin. How? For the blood of Jesus is infinitely more valuable than all the sin the world can produce, so that Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who are in Him, those who abide in Him, and those who earnestly pray, Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one, Amen.

Take heart, be of good courage, the best way to turn from sin is to focus on turning to the Father, for in turning to him we turn away from the traps and snares of the world, enabling His life and grace flow through us more deeply, producing an inevitable harvest of fruit fit for the Kingdom, maybe 30, 60, or possibly even 100 fold return.