Defeating Temptation

   The root of all temptation is a lie.  The object of the lie is to suppress the truth and cause men to unbelief.  When Satan first tempted Adam he did not try and make the tree attractive, he challenged the truth of who God was and what He gives.  Adam wasn't drawn away because he had a sin nature; he fell because he stopped believing the truth that God had given.  But when Jesus was tempted (the second Adam) He refused to let go of His faith in the Father.  He knew the Father and was not going to let that truth be suppressed.  Jesus remained faithful to the reality that His Father was good and that the things He had given were right and true.  Temptation is defeated by faith.
    We so easily fall to temptation because we don't know the truth.  Sure we read and study the bible, but we haven't come to unite that with faith.  The writer of Hebrews said of the Children of Israel that the word that heard did not profit them because it was not united with faith.  If we are to combat the lie of all temptation we must unite the word with faith.  At first we hear the word, then we may consent that it is true, and the final step is that the heart is convinced that it is true.  That is when we come to KNOW rather than just believe.  My Dad used to say that we need to KNOW that we KNOW.  If we know God then no matter what temptation arises we have an escape; faith.  John said that faith is the victory that overcomes the world.  You don't need will-power to overcome temptation you need faith.