No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
Three types of people fear New Year temptations:
The ones battling
1. passions.
2. anxieties
3. and anger.
Or a combination of all three.
Apply these to the promise of God: that no temptation will be “uncommon.”
This means if a man’s vice is sexual passion, for example, he will not be sexually tempted by a woman in a way that has never happened before, or will never happen again. Whatever the seductress says or does to tempt him has been said and done before; it also has been successfully resisted before! Joseph in the Bible is a perfect example.
If a woman is worried about resisting over-eating, there is no new and irresistible food on earth. Whatever she feels has been felt before, and will be felt again. No matter how strong her temptation, some woman has experienced it and overcome it!
The man who fears violently losing his temper will not be provoked to anger in a way that has never occurred. Whatever situations he will face that has infuriated him, or will infuriate him, has infuriated many men before him. And many men have controlled their tempers in those situations.
This truth alone brings encouragement and comfort; one of the Tempter’s lies about temptations is that each is a completely new situation. The tempted man or woman is supposedly alone! No one understands the strength of what he or she is going through, according to the devil. This is a lie that should be resisted. God will not allow this, because He is faithful!
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