In my last blog I began by sharing a vital truth every Believer must learn in order to overcome temptation. That truth is: we must learn to put and keep God first in our lives. So then, the real question is, how do we keep God first in our lives? We found there are basics or fundamentals that we can’t afford to neglect. They will not only help us keep God first in our lives, but they will also help us to win over the temptations that come our way. There are four fundamentals that will help us do this. In this blog I will share two of them.
- The Word of God, the Bible, must be a part of our daily lives. Spending time in the Word of God is the first way we grow in our relationship with God. God’s Word is Him speaking to us and revealing His will for us. In the wilderness temptation Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” We must also know the Word is our answer and that truth always strengthens us and defeats the devil in our lives. Remember if the devil can’t deceive you, he can’t defeat you. And in John 17:17 Jesus said, “God’s Word is truth.”
- Prayer is an essential, a fundamental that must be a part of our daily lives because it helps us to keep God first. Prayer is a part of any growing relationship with God. We see the early church disciples devoted their time to prayer in Acts 2:42 and they experienced the direct benefits of it in their lives as well in Acts 4:24-33. Jesus also taught His disciples the necessity of prayer in overcoming temptation in Matthew 26:36-41. Jesus’ life and ministry is our best example. It shows that prayer helps us to keep God first and helps us to win over temptation.
So the short and simple takeaway for us is: both the Word of God and prayer are two fundamentals of our Christian walk that will help us to keep God first in our lives and to win over temptation.