Subtle Temptations

   “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.” (Matt 18: 8)

   We are subjected to many temptations each day.  Some are easily recognized and we quickly turn from them.  Others are much more subtle and may be overlooked.  Sometimes I think Satan throws big temptations at us to keep us from seeing the less obvious.  He knows that the urge to commit adultery or to show hatred to others will be recognized and cause us to turn to God to help us resist them.  But something small may slip past without notice and start us down the road to sin.

   Recent advances in technology offer us a wide variety of things that can occupy our time for both good and evil.  Television, the internet, email, Facebook, Twitter and on and on.  Each of these things can be a good thing if used properly.  This blog is posted on Facebook and on Google+.  Hopefully there is some good realized by these writings.  Yet Facebook, Google and all the rest can also be full of sinful content and temptations.  A click on the wrong ICON can lead you to great evil.

   Sports used to be considered good, clean entertainment.  For years children looked up to sports stars, making heroes of them.  Yet the life-style of those in the sports industry have become so entwined with self-gratification and self-worship that they can no longer be considered a hero for our young to emulate.  It may have always been this way, but it seems that there is now pride taken in the sinful lifestyle so many lead.

   I spent many years in the wireless industry, helping to build the networks that cell-phones operate on.  I believe these devices are a good thing but, like most good things, they can be misused.  I see people in restaurants, at movies, even walking down the street absorbed by the texts, messages, email or internet offerings on their cell-phone.  In many cases husbands and wives spent more time interacting with their phone that with each other.  Children sometimes seem totally unaware of their surroundings; their focus is on the game they are playing or the texts to and from friends.

   I have always believed that Satan’s greatest weapon is subtlety.  He doesn’t need to tempt us to adultery if he can keep us watching pornography on the internet.  Through television, movies and video games we can be tempted to glorify violence of all kinds without ever committing a violent act.  If our focus is on the cell-phone in our hand, the computer on our desk or the television we watch it detracts from the important things we should be focused on.

   So many things with so much potential for good are turned against us through the slyness and subtlety of Satan.  If we sit down and take a hard look at how much time we spend focused on the cell-phone, the internet and the television I think many of us would be surprised to learn that we devote more time to these devices than to our family, friends and God.  All things can be used for either good or evil.  Our responsibility is to use them wisely.