A gray squirrel eats a Reese's peanut butter cup stolen from a nearby drug store dumpster on Chestnut Street in Oneonta, N.Y., on Wednesday, May 28, 2003. (AP Photo/Oneonta Daily Star, Julie Lewis)
I am doomed.
Fighting temptation has never been as hard as it is in these crazy days of “stay-at-home” regulations. Food entrepreneurs have too much time on their hands.
I will be the first to admit I love chocolate. And potato chips. I face these weaknesses daily since my husband either loves to indulge me or enjoys watching me fight losing battles with temptation.
Now I have been dealt a double-whammy.
Word is now out that there’s a new Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup on the horizon: Reeses’s Big Cup with Potato Chips. Sweet and salty.
The rumored snack joins the latest cereal ideas for 2020: Oatmeal Crème Pies, a partnership between Kellogg’s and Little Debbie, and Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Puffs, Jolly Ranchers, and Hershey’s Cookies and Crème, all from General Mills.
Unfortunately, food giants know what appeals to our weaknesses and keep coming up with newer, flashier temptations.
“Just taste” the temptation
That is also the way Satan works.
He hits us where we are weakest. And if he can get us to “just taste” the temptation, he is hoping to hook us.
I have never been tempted with drugs—not in college, not in work . . . never. Satan knows that is not my weakness. But I am tempted in other areas. And he keeps coming up with newer, flashier ways to attack, making the temptation even more appealing. His goal is getting me to rationalize the action, the behavior, or lifestyle.
I recently saw a meme that spoke a lot of truth about how Satan works: “First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalize evil. Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil. Then we persecute those who still call it evil.”
This is happening in our culture today with actions God clearly identifies as sin throughout the Bible. It began in the Garden of Eden when Satan told Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1). And, “You will not surely die (v. 4).”
Satan twisted God’s word, then appealed to Eve’s senses: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (v. 6).
Satan doesn’t stop with sin. He wants it to become acceptable, to be shared.
But, we have a way of escape.
Submit to God; resist the devil
The Apostle Paul told the believers in Corinth, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Jesus exemplified escape from temptation when he faced Satan in the wilderness. After Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights, Satan appealed to his weakened senses: his hunger and his desire to fulfill his Father’s plan without the pain and suffering. Satan misused Scriptures in his temptations, but Jesus quoted Scriptures in perspective to overcome the temptations (Matthew 4:1–10).
Jesus warned his disciples about Satan’s ploy in John 10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (v. 10). Satan tries to give what is never his to give. He turns what God has made good into something evil. And he turns God’s truth into lies.
Satan will do anything to keep us from experiencing the abundant life Jesus offers.
Our weapon against him? “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Jesus proved this to be true. After Jesus submitted to God, “the devil left him” (Matthew 4:11).
When tempted, whether it’s physical temptation or spiritual attacks from doubts, despair, or fear, remember that Satan is a defeated foe. His fate is already sealed: “The devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
When the next temptation comes, claim God’s word and remember Satan’s fate.
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