Quotes about Temptation

Adam and Eve weren't just after God's forbidden fruit; they were after God's position.

An idolatrous heart will produce idol words, words that serve the idol that grips us.

Envy tempts you to crave what is temporary while you devalue what is eternal. This never leads you anywhere good.

Sin makes us better fighters than lovers.

We're all spiritually promiscuous, running from lover to lover, giving the loyalty of our hearts to things other than God.

There are times when you are tempted to wonder if it's all worth it. But in all this, God is still at work, molding you into the likeness of his Son. It is, in many ways, a multifaceted life of hardship—the hardships of life in this fallen world intersecting with the restorative hardships of grace.

You and I must live temptation-aware; to fail to do so is to fail to recognize the fallenness of the world that happens to be the address where we live.

It is so difficult for us to remember and be motivated by what is truly important. It is so tempting to be committed to our little kingdoms that the transcendent kingdom of God is of little functional influence.

So the desire for good possessions is not wrong, but it must not rule your heart.

A desire for a good thing becomes a bad thing when that desire becomes a ruling thing.

Perhaps all the fear of man, the pride of knowing, the seduction of acclaim, the quest for control, the depression in the face of hardship, the envy of the ministry of others, the bitterness against detractors, and the anxiety of failure are all about the same thing. Each of these struggles is about the temptation to make your ministry about you. From that first dark moment in the garden, this has been the struggle—to make it all about us.

I am still tempted to assess the "good" of a day by whether it pleased me versus whether I pleased God and was loving toward others.