I acknowledge that I can control only myself. I can't control how another person acts or reacts.

We must be aware that desperation breeds degradation. In other words, when what is lacking in life goes from being an annoyance to an anxiety we run the risk of compromising in ways we never thought we would.

When it comes to the moral question, it is not simply whether we say yes or no to desire, but always what we do with desire. Christianity recognizes that we have desire gone mad within us. But it does not seek to rectify the problem by killing desire; rather, it seeks the healing of desire, just as it seeks the healing of every other part of our human being.

You make no agreements with whatever the temptation or accusation is.

Confusing the weight of sins actually hurts our ability to resist temptation.

The new and terrible dangers which man has created can only be controlled by man.

Adam and Eve could not walk away from the seductive serpent who enticed them to eat the forbidden fruit, and they lost Eden. Samson could not walk away from Delilah, who seductively lured him into revealing the secret to the anointing God had given him, and he lost his life. Judas could not walk away from thirty pieces of silver, and he lost his soul. Is the Prince of Darkness tempting you with forbidden fruit to lure you away from your blessing? Be like Abram: walk away today!  

Overcoming sin, blessed though it surely is, is but the bare minimum of a believers experience. There is nothing astonishing in it. Not to overcome sin is what ought to astonish us.

Our own evil inclinations are far more dangerous than any external enemies.

Temptation exercises our faith and teaches us to pray.

For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.

An untested faith is an unreliable faith.