A Pan Full of cookies

Your Mom baked cookies but it's not for you. She asked you not to eat the cookies for they are for anyone else. You are ultimately tempted to eat the cookies for they smell good. You then put your hands on the pan to get some crumbs. You aren't planning to eat a single cookie but as time goes by, since your mom wasn't around, you ate one cookie. But the cookie was too good so you ate another until you didn't noticed that you ate all of it.  Eventually, your mom came back and noticed that you ate all of the cookies. She got angry and scolded you for not following a simple instructions.

Consider the MOM represents God. She knew you would eat the cookies so she warned you at all cost. Just like God, He warns us before we even fall into a single temptation. It may be through prayer or devotion, and even giving you wisdom to identify if it's good or bad. He commands you before you sin, we sometimes didn't noticed it.

The Pan, on the other hand, is the temptation. We tend to dwell into the temptation and put our half self believing that we could escape. But once we put our hands and even a single finger into the circle of temptations, we are getting closer to the sin.

The cookies are sins. We always through that one is enough. We also tend to say "Just this once" but the temptation is getting stronger and it calls us to sin until we are satisfied.

As Romans 6:12 says "Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires." It all means

1. At all cost, TURN AWAY FROM SIN.

Do not put your hands on the skin of temptation just to "feel" the sin.

2. WIN OVER TEMPTATION

When Eve was tempted by the serpent, it offers "wonderful" benefits if Eve followed its instruction. Same with us when the enemy will offer us temporary satisfaction and convince us to do the wrong thing. Remember that God commanded and warned Adam and Eve about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad but they were curious of the effects of eating its fruit so they did eat it and they were cursed. But when Jesus came to life, He came to save us from sin and grace poured out to us as He forgives all of our shortcomings. He have won the battle, all we have to do is to win over temptation and learn from the pasts mistakes.

3. DO NOT DESIRE SIN

In James 1:15, it says "These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death."  Death, as it was mentioned, is Spiritual death. It is the wages of our sins (Romans 6:23) And these desires are the desires of our flesh. The desires we thought are "good for us" And everything starts with a simple desire to do something. Desire the good things, and only the things that could glorify God. Rather delight yourself to God and He will give the things that you have to desire (Psalms 34:7)

4. REPENT

Repent if you have sinned. Repentance isn't simple asking God for forgiveness but also turning away from sin. It is not doing the same things again and again and expecting different result. As Mark 1:15 says "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." Believing in the gospel itself, JESUS, is what it means to repent. In John 3:16, God have send His only Son because He loves us so much and to gain an everlasting life, we have to believe in His Son. Repentance is a 180 Degree turn from sin to righteousness.

5. CHOOSE JESUS EVERYDAY

Romans 6:16 "Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

We are all tempted by the enemy. It calls us by our sins and always keep on reminding us of the things we have repented for. But if the choose to obey the Lord and listen to what He is saying, we can live a life free from sin for it is what Jesus have died for! When Cain get angry, The Lord warned him in Genesis 4:7 "You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue and be it's master. Fight against temptation is one of the hardest part in obeying Jesus, but at all cost, we must put our one foot forward to Christ's righteousness. If God is for us, nothing will ever be against us.