“Dragged Away”

When tempted no one should say God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. James 1:13-15.

Verse Reflections:  Yep, I would have to say, I am tempted by my own “evil” (morally wrong or bad, harmful, detrimental) desires for those warm, gooey, crisp chocolate chip cookies, homemade cream cheese pound cake and the list goes on.  So, God cannot tempt me and yet I am over and over “dragged away and enticed”.  To the point that I feel like my temptations are bigger than Goliath and they literally drag me by the hair to their side so I will eat them.  This verse leaves me with the humbling realization that only I can drag myself away from this course, only I can indulge in these foods that entice me.  God refuses to participate in the tempting. In fact, He promises to protect us.  There is a beautiful verse in Psalms 91:4:  “He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings will you find refuge.  His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”.  A rampart is a defensive wall.  As usual, God has promised us the power we need to have.  We must again, today “just do it”.  We must hide under His wings and we must not allow ourselves to be “dragged away” from the healthy foods that we know we should eat.  We are only protected if we stay by God’s side, under His wings.  The crazy thing is I really do love God foods.  I love grilled asparagus, steak, grilled vegetables, grilled chicken, pork chops, grilled tomatoes, snow peas, green beans stir fried with almonds.  I just have this crazy game inside of my head that has caused the foods with high calories to be the most enticing.  I have to break this mental bondage.  God is not tempting us.  We are tempting ourselves.  So we must instead reach up to God for protection from the daily temptations.  We must know that not only will He not participate in this temptation battle, He will protect us from it, IF we claim His power. Today is the day we quit with God’s power!

Prayer:  Lord, I hear the verse above loudly and clearly.  Protect me from being “dragged away and enticed” by my own crazy head.  This verse just totally takes away my devil with the megaphone imagery and replaces it with me.  Ugh, I have to be responsible again?   I envision that beautiful verse in Psalms 91:4:  “He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings will you find refuge.  His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”.  A rampart is a defensive wall.  And yet, I also see myself under Your soft wings peering out as I smell warm baked chocolate chip cookies pulled from the oven.  Then there is me slowly sneaking out then running as I am being tempted by my “own evil desire… being dragged away and enticed” to leave your protective, soft wings and eat the entire pan of crispy, chewy cookies.  So, I know You will not tempt me today but I need extra protection of a defensive wall from my own temptations.  I can sure tempt myself just by opening the cabinet and imagining the next buttery, sugary desert I want to bake, going to the grocery store and walking the isles, or driving to the nearest restaurant.  For me, over-eating is wrong.  I am addicted to the over-indulgence and I know it.  I know food is not evil and a few cookies, brownies, bread, one glass of wine or chips are not evil.  Thus the plus 1 not plus 10.  My problem is that I am not able on my own to stop at one serving.  I need Your power to overcome my own temptation.  I know starting my day with Your word and power will do just that.  I am going to hide under your wings today but I need the hard defensive wall around your soft protective feathers.  I need double protection sweet and paternal and hard and defensive.  Yesterday was amazingly fun and easy.  May today reign in Your kingdom with the same victory.  We WILL “NOT be enticed”.