The Trap of Temptation

Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
- James 4:7

Right after I became a Christian, other believers warned me, "Greg, watch out. There is a Devil who will tempt you."

I said, "Right. A Devil." I thought of the red figure with the pitchfork and horns.

They said, "No, the Devil is real. He is a real spirit power, and he will tempt you."

I said, "Get out of town! He isn't going to tempt me."

I was in high school at the time, and there was a certain girl in my art class whom I sort of had a crush on. I hadn't mustered up the courage to walk up and talk to her. I was sitting in class one day as a brand-new Christian, and suddenly she walked up to me and said, "Hi. What's your name?" We had been in the same class for months, and she had never even acknowledged my existence.

I told her my name.

She said, "You know, you're kind of cute. My parents have a cabin up in the mountains, and I'm going up there this weekend. Why don't you come up with me? Let's get to know each other better."

I thought, This is it. This is what they told me about. It's temptation! I declined her invitation and realized there had to be something to what had just happened. I thought, I'm not an idiot. No girl has ever come up to me and said this before. This is a setup.

That experience made me want to follow the Lord even more because I saw the reality of the spiritual world beginning to unfold. Remember, the Devil wants to keep you from coming to Christ. And once you have come to Christ, he wants to keep you from moving forward.