by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n
Many people believe that what they feel drawn to (tempted) is their true, authentic self. They believe that giving in to all their temptations is just being who they really are. There are several things wrong with that.<\/p>\n
Desires are never that straightforward and are often opposed. We want to be in shape and healthy while also eating whatever we want. We want those around us to feel loved and cared for by us, but we also want to express our anger and get revenge. Obviously, desires cannot be our guiding light.<\/p>\n
Desires are constantly shifting and changing. They change with our blood sugar, the time of day, our mood, and a hundred other small things happening internally. They also change with our environment. People who are drawn into gangs are not just being their true selves; they are hugely influenced by their environment. Clearly, something so mutable cannot be our true selves.<\/p>\n
Giving into our base desires makes us and the world a very dark place. It has always been noted that when people give themselves to all their desires, they make their corner of the world worse. Why would we believe that that is our authentic self?<\/p>\n
You are not your temptations. You are not someone who is supposed to be a rage monster. You are not made for sexual temptation. Who you really are is not your greed or selfishness.<\/p>\nYou were made in the image of God and called to conform to the likeness of His Son.
\nNo temptation has overcome you that is not common to mankind (I Corinthians 10:13). God has provided a way of escape because He is faithful and long-suffering, not wishing you to perish (II Peter 3:9).\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Chadwick Brewer Many people believe that what they feel drawn to (tempted) is their true, authentic self. They believe that giving in to all their temptations is just being who they really are. There are several things wrong with that. Desires are never that straightforward and are often opposed. We want to be in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1242,185],"class_list":["post-86173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-character","tag-temptation"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-all-temptations-come-from-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":86173,"position":0},"title":"Do all temptations come from Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Although I've read it several times before, I was discussing James 1:13-15 with my mother. In many of your explanations of this verse, you explain that Satan uses our own desires against us to break God's laws. I explained to my mother that our desires lead us into temptations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-gay-people-going-to-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":86173,"position":1},"title":"Are gay people going to hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it true that gay people go to hell? I'm not gay, but a lot of people are, and it's not out of choice. They are just born attracted to men. So if it's not an option, why should they get punished for it? Answer: \"Attraction\" just means what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16502,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-book-can-i-commit-to-memory-to-overcome-sexual-lusts\/","url_meta":{"origin":86173,"position":2},"title":"Which book can I commit to memory to overcome sexual lusts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My Christian life hasn't been very fruitful, to say the least. I still engage in the same sexual lusts that I once did and I am searching for the right book in the New Testament to commit to memory so that I can combat these temptations. I can't win\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92429,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unregulated-desires\/","url_meta":{"origin":86173,"position":3},"title":"Unregulated Desires","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chadwick Brewer \"For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-comes not from the Father but from the world\" (I John 2:16). Our desires come from God. He created desire between a husband and wife. He created beauty in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51471,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/emotional-decision-making\/","url_meta":{"origin":86173,"position":4},"title":"Emotional Decision Making","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Genesis 37:32-35 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Repeatedly I find people making decisions based on their feelings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Usually I get contacted because those choices have gone wrong and the person wants to know why. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But I can\u2019t help but notice that this isn\u2019t just a problem in moral choices. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90545,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-must-have-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":86173,"position":5},"title":"We Must Have the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Adam Faughn In our world, we sometimes hear people who speak of how they want a relationship with Jesus, but they do not want much (if anything) to do with the church. This is not new; in fact, some of you will remember the days when the saying, \"give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}