In Who’s Targeting Your Marriage? I brought up the idea that our marriages have a target on their back because they are important to God’s kingdom. As this series continues, I’m addressing the five ways Satan gets a foothold in our marriage, and how he saunters into our bedroom – sometimes with our inadvertent permission. In my last post I discussed our selfish ambition. Today, we delve into temptation.
How are you temped daily? This question elicits different responses depending on our gender, our age, our life stage, and our priorities. If you’re like me, you’re temped by hours of Netflix binge watching and junk food. And shoe sales. And Hobby Lobby. If you’re a mom with littles (little children under the age of five), you might be temped by anything that will get you five minutes of quiet and a sip of your coffee while it’s actually hot. If your marriage is hurting, you by temped by the D-word. Or you might be tempted by the man behind you at the grocery store who smiled when you turned around. Because it’s been a long time since someone has smiled at you like that. If you’ve dealt with addiction, you might be tempted by things your friends can’t even comprehend, and when they try to relate by bringing up their Chapstick© addiction, you might be temped to self-isolate. Because what’s the point?
This is a big topic, and to keep this readable and relatable to everyone, I keep my word count down. That means I can only truly highlight what temptation might look like in your life – and how Satan loves to use it to create that foothold.
Temptation can be broken into three main categories, and I’ll cover each very briefly below.
- VICES. Our vices can be big like an addiction or seemingly harmless, like a shoe fetish. It’s not the size of our vice that is as significant as the harm that vice can cause in your marriage. Is your vice driving a wedge between you and your spouse? 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer our own. Can we take a moment to ask ourselves whether Christ would approve of what we’re about to do? If you can’t do that, I challenge you to think that perhaps it’s your vice that’s not only driving a wedge between you and your spouse, but between you and God.
- LUST. Galatians 5:24 says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Confession: this is easier to read than do. And part of the danger is that, as women, we have a tendency to think this is a category largely saved for men. Sure, there’s an epidemic of porn addiction and legging ogling, but don’t discount how lust can look on you. It might be subtle. Our lust doesn’t need to be sexual. Sometimes it can come in the form of comparison…wishing your husband were more like another. Sometimes our lust can look a lot more holy when there’s a God factor. After all, it can be easy to swoon over the stylish pastor preaching. But take a heart check, ladies. That’s lust too.
- FINANCES. Whether you make enough money, not enough money or too much money, without a Godly perspective on finances, Satan can take control of your bank account – and wreak havoc on your marriage. What does financial temptation look like? How about lying about spending? Hiding money or bonuses? Overspending? Or a lack of generosity. God makes it very clear that our possessions are a waste of our resources, and yet we can’t help ourselves. You should see my shoe collection. And my drawer of lipsticks. If you’re not on the same page in your marriage with finances, Satan will have a field day with you. There’s no easy fix to this, but seeking out financial counseling or getting a book by
is a good start.
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