How Do You Resist Temptation So You Can Finally Stop Doing What Is Wrong?

You resist temptation by walking in your true identity.

You have to know that God loves you, and who you are in Christ. Know and understand that you are a child of God and this understanding will give you a desire to do the right thing and you will be empowered to act according to who you truly are and always meant to be.

Try these 5 tips (refer to Ephesians 6: 10-20) to get to know who you are so you can get the desire to do what is right.

1.  Have a relationship with the Lord 

    a. Be a born-again believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. - Believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. 

    b. Change your mindset - Admit that you have done wrong and ask for forgiveness and turn away from your sins and turn towards God and see things the way He does by seeking Him by reading the Bible. 

    c. Spend time with God - You get to know God by spending time with Him. You do this by reading your Bible and supplement that with listening and reading the word of God via sermons, books, and continuously praying. Talk to Him about everything, be vulnerable with Him and listen to Him. When you do this, you will get to know you are loved by God and who you are in Christ. 

  d. Know who you are in Christ- You are a child of God. When God sees you, He sees you as righteous. When you know who you are and you know God loves you and you love Him, out of that love you will want to live up to who you are and do the right thing. 

 e.  Live a righteous lifestyle - by loving God, yourself, and others. Be led by the Holy Spirit and serve who He leads you to serve, pray for Him to help you and depend on Him to do it. 

2. Be led by the Holy Spirit - You may be led to get away from what is tempting you to do wrong. You know you are being led by the Holy Spirit if you have peace about it and you are doing it out of love. Following God won't always be easy but you will have peace. What we know has limits and God is infinite and all-knowing. You have to depend on God and sometimes it feels like you have no control because your flesh and your spirit are opposing each other.  God may lead us into places or situations that make no sense to us at the moment, so we have to trust when He leads us to places that don't make sense and we have to rely on Him to get us through it, and trust that He has all of our best interests at heart. Humble yourself and depend on Him and follow Him. This will require you to want what God wants more than what you want. 

3.  Want what God wants for you more than what you want for yourself. If you are tempted to do something wrong, it is probably something that you want to do so you have to want what God wants for you more than what you want. Trust God over everything and everyone. You have to know that God loves you and know that He is all knowing and wants what is best for you so submit to His will instead of your own. When you want what God wants for you more than what you want you have to surrender and depend on Him to help you stand firm and resist temptation. Pray and ask Him to put His desire in your heart over your own desire. 

4.  Pray Continually - Continuously talk to God about everything and listen. If you are faced with doing something wrong remove yourself from the situation and tell God that He said that He will not allow you to be tempted more than you can handle and He will provide a way out when you are tempted (1 Corinthians 10:13), and that you believe and trust Him and thank Him for what He has already done. By doing this you are showing Him that you know His word and you have faith and came into agreement with it and have accepted what He has already done. Be alert, watch your thoughts and what others say that can tempt you to get your thoughts out alignment of what God and the word says and pray for yourself and others for strength and His will in your life. 

5. Know and Apply the Word of God - You use it by: knowing who God is, knowing who you are in Him, with that knowledge, walk in who you are, and when you have thoughts that don't align with who you are, replace them.

  You are replacing morally wrong thoughts, suggestions, and temptations with the Word and saying what God's Word says out loud to get rid of the wrong thoughts so you won't continue with the thoughts and act on them. The thoughts will more than likely come back so you have to be prepared by being in the Word of God and standing firm on it. 

The Holy Spirit will empower you to know what is right from wrong and choose right. This is one of the ways you can actively depend on God. You should have an ongoing constant developing relationship with God, by praying, reading your Bible. and getting to know Him and His ways. When you do this, His word will become a part of you, and you will know in your heart what He wants you to do because you will have peace about it. 

Know what God said and believe it despite what you feel, see, or thought you knew, and when temptation comes stand firm on God's word and don't doubt or be moved. If you do doubt or you are moved, get right back on track and stand on His word.

 When you face temptation, take your knowledge of the word and He will give you the grace to have the desire to want to do what is right because you know what all God has done for you. And somehow you want to thank Him out of gratitude and love for Him but you know there is nothing you can do that can measure up to His love and grace so you just try to do what is right the best you can out of love, respect, and the grace He gives you to do it (see Luke 19:1-10).

    These tips will help you have a desire to do what is right out of love because you are aligned with whose you are and who you are and you are prepared in advance for when you are tempted to do wrong.

For example - Think of a parent child relationship. Your parents tell you, don't do drugs and you don't do them because they don't do them. They have exemplified who they are and therefore showed you who you are. You know who you are because you are from them and you trust them and you have the desire to be like them, so you follow their lead and resist temptation to not do drugs out of love instead of struggling not to do it out of obligation or fear because it is a rule or a law.  

If one does not have a close, active relationship with the Lord, will the Lord still help them resist temptation? 

Yes, God is merciful. If you aren't prepared or if you fall into wrongdoing, He can still be there to help provide you a way.

 One way is by giving the following: 

1. Knowledge - You are enlightened of the facts.

2. Understanding - You comprehend the facts and the consequences. 

    Have you ever been told something and it just doesn't click, or you hear the facts, but you don't listen; you don't receive it or take it in? 

For example, in Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites that they saw and knew that the Lord delivered them from slavery out of Egypt, and they saw all the trials the Egyptians had to go through, and the signs and wonders God did to get them out, and they knew and experienced that the Lord took care of them in the wilderness. But even though they knew, they had not yet received a heart of understanding from the Lord. Because they lacked understanding and wisdom, they rebelled and complained.

 Another example is when I was invited to go to a Christmas gathering at the last minute. And the other person who was invited with me said she wasn't going because it was a Christmas gathering and they may be exchanging gifts and we didn't have any gifts. I heard her say that, but I didn't really listen. I didn't understand or comprehend that they were probably going to exchange gifts. It went in one ear and out the other. I didn't have understanding, and I wasn't wise enough to know that I shouldn't go because I didn't have any gifts.

3. Wisdom - You know what to do with the information that you know and understand. 

4. Grace - You are enabled or empowered to actually do what you know and understand.

5. Do it - You have to decide to do it. You actually have to make a decision and do or move on what you are empowered to do. 

An example from the Bible is when Queen Esther was initially tempted by fear to not help the Jews from being destroyed when she got knowledge of a plan against them, because entering the King's inner court without being invited could mean her life could be taken. However, she understood if she did not help, she and her family could suffer the consequences. She understood that she may have been chosen to be Queen to help her people. She was given wisdom to fast, and she instructed the Jews to fast as well. She was given the grace to take on the task because she surrendered the situation by saying, "if I perish, I perish."  And she did it. She successfully went to the king and helped save the Jews from destruction.

Here, Queen Esther knew the facts, understood them, and had the wisdom to know what to do; she was given grace to do it when she was tempted with the fear that her life could be taken. She resisted the temptation of fear by accepting the request for her help.

But what if we don't resist the temptation? Will God give us grace to get out when we do fall into temptation? 

Yes, if you fall into temptation there is still ongoing grace to get out of the situation.

 Many people think God's grace is only in the beginning, but His grace is ongoing and He will help us in the midst of our wrongdoing. Here are some illustrations that show God's ongoing grace.

For example in Tony winner, actress, and dancer Kelly Bishop’s book, The Third Gilmore Girl, Kelly was in rehearsals for a show in Las Vegas, and she was tired and oddly was unable to remember her choreography, so she got upset and cried and someone gave her a drug called speed or “pep pills” (the name they were called in the 1960s) to help her, and it worked. She continued to take the drug for energy to get through a heavy schedule of rehearsals and shows. She made a decision to quit taking them when she traveled back to New York, and she actually did it. 

There is a similar example in Pamela Anderson's book Love Pamela when her son had experimented with using drugs but before he got too deep into it, he asked could he take the remaining of his college fund he had left over from leaving college, because he felt college wasn't for him and he got a job and pursued his passion, and he used the money to go to rehab. He had previously seen how drugs could ruin people's lives, and he didn't want it to happen to him. p. 217

Going back to Kelly Bishop' s book, there is another example of getting out of something she shouldn't have gotten into. When Ms. Bishop started having an affair with a married man she met on one of her shows. They were sneaking around spending time together and she ended up catching deep feelings for him. Although it was hard for her, she decided to do the right thing and end the relationship because she thought if his wife loved him nearly as much as she did, she was doing her a disservice. p.61

In all of these examples they were given a way out of their wrongdoing by having knowledge and understanding of the facts of their wrong that they had gotten into and by having wisdom to know to stop and the grace to get out of it. Although they took the bait initially, they were given the grace to get out of the situation, and they came into agreement to do what was right and they actually did it. 

What happens if God gives you the knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and the grace to do something but you don't do your part and actually do it, or you prolong the way out?

If you don't take that grace God gives you to escape the situation it could lead to devastating consequences. 

Like when Ms. Kelly Bishop didn’t escape when it was presented to her even though she knew what she needed to do when she was dating this man named Kevin in her book. She knew she was not into him anymore and she had gotten signs that he was not right for her, but she continued the relationship anyway. She ended up getting pregnant and having an abortion. 

And even after that devastating event, she still didn’t take the way out when Kevin presented to her his lease was ending and he suggested moving in with her. She knew she wanted to tell him to renew his own lease, but against her better judgment, she did the opposite and allowed him to move in with her. She ended up having an affair on him and they broke up and he ended up stalking her. She confronted him about the stalking, and she told him that if she ended up dead the police would look at him first. He told her he would not do that.

This situation became dire because she knew she should not have prolonged this relationship and ended up with an abortion, cheating, heartache, and stalking. And it all could have been prevented if she would have gotten out when she had the opportunity to do it earlier.

The Takeaway

You do not have to struggle against sin in your own willpower. When you know who you are in Christ, you are empowered to resist temptation out of pure love, respect, and gratitude for God.

 But even if you haven't gotten there yet God will help you by giving you the facts and understanding of a situation you are in and give you the wisdom to know what to do and enable you to do it and you have to take his grace and actually do it.