Temptation

(Joseph Philpot, "Daily Portions")

"The Lord knows how to deliver the godly
 out of temptations." 2 Peter 2:9

Few will sincerely and spiritually go to the Lord,
and cry from their hearts to be delivered from the
power of a temptation, until it presses so weightily
upon their conscience, and lies so heavy a burden
upon their soul, that none but God can remove it.

But when we really feel the burden of a temptation;
when, though our flesh may love it, our spirit hates
it; when, though there may be in our carnal mind a
cleaving to it, our conscience bleeds under it, and
we are brought spiritually to loathe it and to loathe
ourselves for it; when we are enabled to go to the
Lord in real sincerity of soul and honesty of heart,
beseeching Him to deliver us from it; I believe, that
the Lord will, sooner or later, either remove that
temptation entirely in His providence or by His grace,
or so weaken its power that it shall cease to be what
it was before, drawing our feet into paths of darkness
and evil.

As long, however, as we are in that state of which
the prophet speaks, "Their heart is divided; now
shall they be found faulty" (Hosea 10:2); as long
as we are in that carnal, wavering mind, which James
describes, "A double minded man is unstable in all
his ways;" as long as we are hankering after the
temptation, casting longing, lingering side glances
after it, rolling it as a sweet morsel under our tongue;
and though conscience may testify against it, yet not
willing to have it taken away, there is . . .
  no hearty cry,
  nor sigh,
  nor spiritual breathing of our soul,
that God would remove it from us.

But when we are brought, as in the presence of a heart
searching God, to hate the evil to which we are tempted;
and cry to Him that He would, for his honor and for our
soul's good, take the temptation away, or dull and
deaden its power; sooner or later the Lord will hear
the cry of those who groan to be delivered from those
temptations, which are so powerfully pressing them
down to the dust.