Quotes about Temptation

For the good that I would,'" he quoted, "'I do not; and the evil that I would not, that I do.'" "Who said that?" "The man who invented Christianity—St. Paul.

If you allowed yourselves to think of God, you wouldn't allow yourselves to be degraded by pleasant vices. You'd have a reason for bearing things patiently, for doing things with courage..

A dervish was tempted by the devil to cease calling upon Allah, on the ground that Allah never answered, "Here am I." The Prophet Khadir appeared to him in a vision with a message from God.) Was it not I who summoned thee to my service? Was it not I who made thee busy with my name? Thy calling "Allah!"was my "Here am I." Jalal-uddin Rumi

But I don't want comfort; I want god, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.

He would have liked to behave well, but he did not know how to stop behaving badly.

The spirit was a libertine, but the flesh and its affections were chaste.

It occurs to me it is not so much the aim of the devil to lure me with evil as it is to preoccupy me with the meaningless.

The strong could make their own law, live their own lives; in fact, they were beyond good and evil. What was good and what was evil? It is easy enough to stifle conscience for a time. The satisfied flesh has its own law.

The next time you're tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable.

We are kept out of the Garden by our own fear and desire in relation to what we think to be the goods of our life.

If you are paralyzed by your past, if Satan is destroying your gifts and your calling by his incessant replaying of old tapes, you're actually being hit by a double whammy. The original damage in the past is one thing - but now you're letting yourself be hurt and sidetracked again by the memory of what happened... We should not be ignorant of Satan's devices, and these ugly memories are one of the main weapons in his arsenal.

We see now why the great target of Satan is to break down our faith. He knows all too well that the righteous live by faith, so he aims at cutting our lifeline to God. Faith is like the hand that reaches up to receive what God has freely promised. If the devil can pull your hand back down to your side, then he has succeeded. All of God's intended supply will just stay where it is in heaven.