In order to stay one step ahead of the devil you need to understand temptation and successfully resist it because it is impossible to live in this world without being tempted, it's a part of life. We are tempted many times a day by things such as lust, greed, impatience and many more and it is so important that we conquer these enemies. We need to have enough faith without constantly praying for the rough, tempting times to be whisked away. We need to be strong enough and faithful enough to behave the same way in bad times as we do in good times. We need to put our feelings to one side at times and think more about how we behave. It is perfectly possible, and it is expected, that when you are upset, angry or frustrated that you still maintain your decorum. Christians behaving well in society is so important as it enables us to set an exemplary example to non-Christians. Everything that God tells us to do in his Word is intended for our benefit, it's not for him, for example he tells us to forgive others so that we don't have to live, locked in a prison of upset, anger and hatred. If you work with God to make his Word a reality in your life you will go from victory to victory having a life increasingly more full of joy, peace, victory and power. One of the problems many of us have is that we do and say a lot of power draining things and we need to learn to add power, not deduct it from our lives. In Matthew 6:13, Jesus said in his prayer, "Lead us not into temptation". He did not say, 'Let us not be tempted', so we are to be tempted but we must not give in to it. One of the main reasons we fall into temptation rather than overcoming and having success over it is that we quite simply don't do what Jesus tells us to do. Most of us don't pray regularly enough, but we should, so that we can recognise temptation and not fall into its trap and we should all be praying the words 'give me the strength to not give into temptation' or words to that effect. Temptation will happen. The devil knows exactly what pushes our buttons and when he pushes them, that's when we really need to behave the way that God wants us to and pray to him to help give us the strength to not give in to temptation. Jesus prayed so hard in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:40) that he began to sweat drops of blood when he was faced with temptation. He was also led into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights where he endured constant tempting by the devil. Jesus was strong and came out victorious (Luke 4). People try to overcome things such as temptation, they try, they hope, they want to overcome. There is no point praying for temptation not to come - it will come. We need to pray that when it does come, we will not be lured in. Sincere, focused prayer works. Challenges like temptation do have their uses in our lives though. If we didn't encounter challenges then we would be weak, foolish and unwise as we would have nothing to help build us up in these areas. It might seem to you that you go through periods of great temptation when the devil is constantly on your back and you feel like you want to give up as you can't cope. But you need to focus on the truth that God will never give you more than you can endure, and for every temptation, God always provides a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13). When you encounter a trial, say to yourself, 'God knows how much I can take, there is a purpose in this trial'. Ask God to strengthen you so that you can make it through and be the person God wants you to be.
We are always wanting and expecting other people to change so that we are not aggravated and bothered by them, but the truth is that God wants us to change. This doesn't mean that God agrees with what others are doing but it highlights that we, ourselves, can't change those people. They need to go on their own journey but even if they refuse to do so, it doesn't mean that there isn't a way for you to enjoy your life - there is - Let God change you! We pray so often for God to change things in our lives, but how often do we actually ask him to change us? Generally, non-Christians don't handle temptation well, but Christians do as they are at various stages of learning how to rise above the flesh. The devil will continue to tempt you in your weak areas until we eventually ask God to change us. "GOD CHANGE ME!!!!!!!!!"
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