"Yield Not To Temptation"

The story is told of a poverty-stricken mother with five children, who was on her way to a pawn shop, with hopes of getting a loan of $60 for her TV set. Then something very unusual happened — an armored truck filled with sacks of money suddenly drove past her, its rear door flew open, and a bag dropped out. The mother stopped and picked up the sack — inside was a total of $160,000 in cash!

A battle suddenly raged in her soul. She thought, “All of this money would pay all my bills and provide for the needs of my children.” But then she thought, “This money is not mine to keep.” After several hours of struggling with her moral convictions, she called the police and turned in the money. Her sense of doing the right thing won her a great victory over the temptation to keep that which was not hers to keep (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13).

How strong is our ethical fiber? Would it break down if we were faced with an enticing chance to do something wrong as the mother was in the above story? As we recall from Scripture, Adam, Eve, and Jesus were attacked by Satan on three fronts: The "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). Adam and Eve succumbed to the serpent’s solicitation (Genesis 3:1-6) while Jesus did not (Matthew 4:1-11).

Beloved, no matter what evil or temptation is pressuring us to do wrong, let’s follow Jesus’ example and do what’s right (1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6; Hebrews 4:14-15; Hebrews 10:23-24). We will be richly rewarded for doing so (1 Timothy 6:17-19; cf. Matthew 6:19-20).

Let us "Yield Not To Temptation."

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets