by Jim Supp, Campus Pastor @ MBC Loudoun

This past weekend, Pastor Will Pavone spoke about how believers can resist temptation. He did a phenomenal job talking about the fall of Adam and Eve and what we as believers in Christ need to consider to resist falling into temptation ourselves. Feel free to listen at www.mbclive.org – but for now – one of his main points addressed what it meant to accumulate “fighter verses” for daily living. Basically his premise was this – When temptation comes (and it will) we need to be ready with appropriate scriptures to meditate on and appeal to as a defense. When Jesus was tempted in the Garden, the first thing He did was to appeal to Scripture as His defense. Three times He was tempted, and three times He responded using scripture – “it is written…!” (The temptation of Jesus is found in Matthew 6).

Will provided three really good examples: Ephesians 5:3 for purity – There must not even be a hint of sexual impurity in your life, 1 Peter 5:5 for pride – God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and Matthew 6:20 for dealing with material possessions – “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” I have a bunch of verses myself – committed to memory and some typed out and placed in strategic locations like my computer screen.

• I will set before my eyes no vile thing – Psalm 101:3
• Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind – Romans 12:2
• …we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ – 2 Corinthians 10:5
• Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths – Ephesians 4:29

And of course, we could go on and on. What are your “fighter verses?” If you don’t have any, you need to first identify the areas of greatest temptation for you. What are they? Gossip? Anger? Lack of Discipline? After you have identified your key temptations, you must then go on a search of the scriptures for the verses that speak to those temptations. Lastly, you need to commit these scriptures to memory so they are available to you at a moment’s notice for your protection. Then you can ‘resist the devil and he will flee’ – James 4:7. This is a critical discipline for every Christ follower to learn – and one that produces enormous fruitfulness in daily living. God bless.