Boom. Temptation lands.

Satan is enticing you to splurge through your new budget, or dial up that website you know should stay buried, or sabotage your efforts to show kindness at work by letting your temper fly towards a coworker, or whatever else has been convicting you lately. The temptation presses hard against your heart, like a gust of wind.

It isn’t actually the real problem.

There’s usually a “decision” phase in every temptation in which we’re still deciding whether to commit a sin. Sometimes it’s short or even near-instantaneous, a “cruise missile” moment (like the flare of a temper), but even then we have a split second to decide.

Do you notice an internal dialogue in those phases?

“You want to do this.”

“I don’t. But I kinda do, too.”

“Yes, you do.”

“But I shouldn’t.”

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