On March 30 I was taken off insulin. I no longer must take steroids, which raise blood glucose, so the doctor determined I could stop taking insulin. She gave me a couple months to try managing my diabetes with just diet and exercise. That means greatly limiting foods high in sugar or carbohydrates. (Some of my favorite foods fall into that category, like bread, cookies, donuts, cookies, potatoes, cookies, cereal. Oh, and did I mention cookies?)
My wonderful husband (who doesn’t know a carbohydrate from a carburetor) has come home recently with cookies, fudge from Cabela’s, sugared almonds from Scheels. And of course, there’s that maple donut he eats sitting next to me in church. I am bombarded with temptation!
While sugar and carbohydrates are temptations to my diet, there are far more dangerous temptations. Those are the temptations to my soul engineered by the source of all temptation, Satan, the enemy of our souls. It didn’t take long before his temptation appeared. Adam and Eve were confronted with temptation by Satan, who is described as the most cunning of all in Genesis 3:1.
Satan’s temptations are dangerous because they are clever. He seldom announces his presence or intent. He sneaks up, cloaks his temptations in half truths and slick words. It is not surprising so many of us fall to his wiles. But the LORD Jesus gave us the remedy for temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane when He told his followers, “Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38, Luke 22:40]
We must stay “awake” to the warnings given us by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we must maintain our relationship with our Father God through prayer.
