Spiritual gifts

Chapter 3 : Sin and Temptation

Chapter 3:

Sin and temptation. Those are two really big words and I'm sure you all know what they mean. I'm sure that every single one of you has been tempted to sin at some point. But you know that it is so hard to do the right thing and doing the right thing can mean saying no.

I don't think you want to spend your life sinning over and over and over. You want to spend your life doing good things. And you want to spend your life serving God to the best of your abilities, as I have mentioned in my last chapter.

You shouldn't be scared to do the right thing, But you might be scared to do the wrong thing. The pressure of that voice in your head tempting you to do something that you know is wrong. And the smaller voice of God saying what you know is right. But you still give in to the louder voice, tempting you to do evil.

It says in first Thessalonians 5:21-22 "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil"

I wonder why the 'carefully' in that bible verse was in italics. Maybe it's to get you to think about being careful.

This world has a lot of evil. Over 60% of the shows and movies you watch, and the books you read have got some sort of evil in it, whether you realise it or not. Especially near holidays like Halloween. It's all about ghosts, goblins, skeletons, demons and witches. Bad and evil stuff.

On kid's shows that are on these days have a lot of evil stuff turned nice. Like it's about a ghost, but it's a friendly one. So now kids are getting the impression that ghosts are good. That is turning bad into good. It's all those things in the world that you should be careful about.

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him." -1Thessalonians 5:9-10.

Wrath means rage, fury, annoyance, irritation, displeasure, discontentment, it basically means bad temper or mood. So God doesn't want our lives to be filled with that, He wants our lives to be good.

Continuing from first Thessalonians 5, it says "Therefore encourage one another and build up one another just as you also are doing."

So God wants us to feel good about ourselves, and make others feel good about themselves. But He also wants us to do the right thing. And to stay away from evil. He wants us to do a lot of things, and I will introduce more things to you throughout this book.

Think about a time that you had to make a fast decision, and you are being tempted to do something that you know you shouldn't do, but your friends are doing it.

One time at school I was hanging out with these girls and they were the 'popular' ones. So like any other girl, I was trying to fit in. They were going to TP someone's house, late at night. I went to bed at around 10, if not earlier, but I'm not going to tell them that and sound uncool. They were all staring at me with there annoyed looking faces, and I wanted to say no. But come on, I was trying to fit in, so I said sure. And of course there is always a punishment for sin. So my parents never found out, but the guilt grew in me, and that was honestly punishment enough. When I'm guilty, I feel horrible. It's the worst feeling.

But with the Lord by your side, if you ask for forgiveness, then you are forgiven. And it is done.

Acts 5:31 says "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." And if you keep reading a bit further into acts it says in chapter 26:18, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they must receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."

So every night when you pray, take a moment to ask for forgiveness of your sins. If you don't ask you are not forgiven, but if you do ask then you are forgiven.

"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours." -Mark 11:24

" Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

-Colossians 3:12-14

"If you forgive those that sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you." -Matthew 6:14

"But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you have a grudge against, so that your father in heaven will forgive your sins too."

-Mark 11:25

So hope you enjoyed the third chapter of my book, please comment and vote if you liked it and thanks everyone for reading. By the way if you happen to be struggling with one area of your life, then please feel free to request a topic for one of the up coming chapters. The next chapter is going to be on becoming a Christian, since I got a request... xx