Temptations... and I'm not talking about the musical group

   Over the course of this week, I have been going over my small group study materials daily and it has been about temptations. Then my verse for today pretty much snapped this into perspective to me. 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man."

   This verse gave me the realization that no person is tempted more than another, which means the thing that is different is our response. This also means that since Jesus was fully man and fully God, He was tempted in exactly the same way we are every day and He even gave us the example of what to do when you are being tempted. Jesus quoted Scripture when He was being tempted. This means He had it memorized. He didn't have to leaf through the scrolls to find the verse He was looking for, He just declared them freely.
   This should give us great hope about facing temptation ourselves. The first step in being able to quote Scripture the way Jesus did is to read and study the Bible. In particular areas of weakness in your life. If your weakness is anger then you would focus on Scriptures having to do with anger. Then memorize these verses. When these verses are memorized, when situations arise that would make you angry you can reflect on those verses and proclaim them over your circumstance.
   Why proclaim them? Simple... there is power in words. When God created the world He spoke it into being. We are made in His image meaning that our words are also very powerful. They have the ability to build up or tear down. When Satan tempted Jesus He didn't just close His eyes, think of a verse and Satan ran off. Instead he proclaimed the truth and then Satan left defeated. Speaking the Word of God over your life is very powerful.