Matthew 4:1-11. "Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil."

1. Recognise Temptation For What It Is.
Temptation is not the same as sin. The first thing you need to learn about temptation is that temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. But Jesus did not sin, because he did not give heed to those temptations. To be tempted meant that he had heard the words spoken by Satan, and the ideas or thoughts of those temptations came into his mind. But immediately, Jesus resisted them with the Word of God. The Bible says "We have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin." [Hebrews 4:15]

It was different for Adam and Eve. When they were tempted by the serpent, they considered the idea, and the more they thought about it, the greater their desire to eat the fruit became. And eventually they fell to the temptation. What went wrong? At no point did they resist the temptation. So it lead to sin.

How can we tell whether it's God testing us or Satan tempting us? Here's a good guide - when Satan tempts, it is so that you might fall. When God tests, it is so that you may stand.

Temptation comes in a great variety of forms. When someone hurts you, you can be tempted to respond with anger. You can be tempted to put your own needs above those of others, or above the Lord's work. When you are tired, you can be tempted to be lazy. You can be tempted to give up on what is good. There are temptations that come to us all the time through what we see on TV or read in some books or magazines. When you go into a shop you are likely to be tempted to buy what you really don't need.

CS Lewis's Screwtape Letters suggest that the devil doesn't waste time tempting us over things that repel us: the real choice is not between the obvious extremes of right and wrong, but the more subtle distinctions of what we want to do and what we ought to do.

Temptations come to all of us, all our lives. The devil didn't finish tempting Jesus when he was tempted in the desert, but merely left him for a while. We might think that temptation is referring to the hot temptations of youth, but similar temptations will come to us later as well - they pass into more subtle temptations of maturity, and the cynical temptations of old age.

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, knew the peril of temptation. Wisely he said: "Even now after forty years of faithful service for God, by one act I could ruin it all. Life is strewn with banana skins - even you could be on your back any minute."

The worst temptations are religious ones: thinking we're godly for doing good. That is why pride is such a deadly sin.

2. Learn About Yourself.
James 1:14 says, "A person is tempted when he is drawn away and trapped by his own evil desire. Then his evil desire conceives and gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death."

Every sin starts out as a temptation to sin. There is something that we see or hear, or a need that we feel that sparks it off. It becomes a Satan implanted thought in our mind, and if we are not careful it grows into a sinful desire, and then sinful words and actions.

It begins with the thought. You can recognise temptation at a number of levels in yourself. When it comes as the thought in your minds, the thought is not yet sin - unless you entertain the thought. Recognise the thought as not being of God, and dismiss it from your mind.

It then becomes emotional temptation. If you let the thought stay there, it then will go deeper into your emotions. It will become a desire. You can also recognise it and counter it at that stage.

Ephesians 4:26 says `If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day.' The emotion of anger is a temptation, but if we leave it there and let it grow it becomes a sinful emotion.

Observe what temptations mostly affect you. It is good to be aware of what the temptations are that you find hardest to deal with - the temptations that you have to deal with the most often. Is it anger, fear, pride, laziness (including spiritual laziness), greed, worry, immorality, holding onto grudges, criticism, or people pleasing? Although any temptation can come to you, it is likely that there will be some that will come to you more than others.

Learn something about why a specific temptation comes to you. Study that theme in the Scriptures, and seek positive counters to it from God's Word.

3. Watch Your Thought Life
An important part of learning about yourself is to watch your thought life. Watch what goes into your mind. What you feed your mind with is what you will become like.

Self discipline is a key. There is a self discipline that has to come into your life. You have to learn how to say that word `No'. When someone offers you a smoke - when there is a pornographic magazine that someone has left lying around - say `no' to yourself. In the end there is going to be no law that can get rid of temptations to sin around you, so you will need to be able to say `no'.

But one reason you fill your mind with rubbish - is that you are not filling your mind with things that are good. A vacuum always seeks to be filled. If you don't fill your mind with good things, then it will be bad things that will come in.

Watch what you watch. Don't watch TV programmes or films which are likely to put evil thoughts into your mind. Programmes these days are specially designed to lull you into accepting what comes next. They take away your defenses by relaxing you into a frame of mind that accepts what is to come. Then comes the temptation into your mind.

Stop before you start. The easiest place to stop something is to stop it at the start, before it grows into sin. Once you let sin enter in, it is a much harder job to stop it, and it will have caused some damage before you get a chance to deal with it.

Fill your minds with praise, with reading good Christian books, with serving the Lord, and doing the work in your family, the church and community that God wants you to. There are also many good recreational activities. You can't beat gardening for being in touch with God's creation, and soaking up the beauty of flowers - their colours, form, and growth.

Philippians 4:8 says, "In conclusion, my brothers, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable."

4. Don't Put Yourself Into The Path Of Temptation.
Many people are surprised when they fall to temptation, but later realise that they opened themselves up to the temptation. Don't go places where you are likely to fall.

Don't go with friends who lead you into temptation. They are not really friends if they are not wanting the best for you. Just keep away from them.

Keep away from any places where you are likely to be tempted. It is amazing how often it is curiosity that makes us go to places that have no value for us. If you are travelling overseas, that is something to particularly watch out for. Don't go into pagan temples, that you would never think of worshipping in - out of curiosity. They have been dedicated to false God's and false beliefs - and they can only bring a harmful spiritual influence.

Get rid of worldly habits completely. For many worldly temptations it is best to say simply that you have nothing to do with them. As soon as you start to say - a little bit of alcohol is OK, then you have a harder task to say when to stop. The same applies to gambling, pornography, drugs, immorality, lies and stealing. The best way to get rid of weeds is to pull them out by the roots. Get rid of the whole lot.

Be busy in the Lord's work. If you get on with doing even some of what needs doing in God's work, there is so much to be done, that there is simply no time left to be going places or looking at things that are not of God.

5. Resist Satan.
There is an old story of a girl called Atlanta who could outrun everyone else. He father promised her hand in marriage to anyone who could beat her in a race. A young man called Milanion competed with her, and he brought three golden apples with him. As he ran, he dropped these one after the other. Atlanta couldn't resist picking them up, and Milanion won the race.

Atlanta lost the race because she allowed herself to be tempted and turn aside. Many Christians do the same! Let us resist Satan's temptations at all costs. Temptation, in itself is not sin, but yielding to it is. Luther once said that "We can't stop the birds flying over our heads, but we can keep them from building nests in our hair."

James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you." This is not just resisting the temptation. Be direct and resist the devil who has sent the temptation.

You need to learn how to resist Satan. Here is how to do it: