In September, we went on vacation for a couple of weeks, then our five-year-old granddaughter, Sarah, got Covid, then we got Covid, so we weren’t able to take her to church for weeks. One day Sarah told me, “Gamma, I MISS church!”

“I know, Sweetie,” I answered. “We’ll take you as soon as we can.” (Sarah lives in Hubbard, so we can’t always get her to church.)

On Sarah’s first Sunday back at church, she told me at least three or four times, “It’s SO good to be in church!” I was very pleased to realize how important church was to her.

Then a week later after she woke up, Sarah put a new game on my IPad that she LOVED. When I said it was time to get ready for church, she reluctantly put down my IPad. “Gamma, I don’t really FEEL like going to church today.”

Oh my goodness, what happened to my granddaughter who missed church and thought it was SO good to be back in church last Sunday? “Sarah, we go to church whether we FEEL like it or not.”

She stretched out on the floor. “But why do we have to go to church?”

“We don’t go to church because we have to go. We go to worship God and to learn more about Jesus because we love Him with all our hearts.”  

I looked deep into Sarah’s eyes and added, “Besides, I think the reason you don’t FEEL like going to church is because you want to keep playing that new game.”

“Oh no, Gamma, that isn’t the reason.”

“I think it is.”

As Sarah started getting dressed, our discussion continued. “Did you know it’s possible to become addicted to games? People can get so addicted that the games become more important than anything or anyone else. Some people neglect God and their families because they’ve become addicted to their games.”

“What’s addicted, Gamma?”

I explained addictions at as simple a level as possible. Our discussion about games went on because Sarah became very upset when I didn’t take my IPad along so she could play her new game on the way to church and later, on the way to Hubbard. She continued to try to convince me that the new game had nothing to do with her not FEELING like going to church.

Watching and listening to the drama that played out before me, I couldn’t help but think about the saying I’ve quoted before, “What the heart loves, the will chooses and the mind justifies.”

Ever since the Garden of Eve, Satan has known what tempts each of us. “When Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.”

The Father of Lies knew what would tempt Eve, and he knows what will tempt me and you. He doesn’t waste his time trying to tempt me to get drunk or watch pornographic movies because he knows I don’t enjoy those things. He would be more apt to tempt me to take on too many ministry activities, doing things I love that would lead me down the path to burnout.

 Christian author/speaker Cynthia Heald says, Most of my temptations and testings involve a choice to engage in activities that, although basically good in themselves, might come at the expense of my walk with God, my family or other responsibilities.

If we aren’t alert to how easily Satan can replace our  love for Jesus with other people or things (which our wills choose and our minds justify), we will be casualties like Eve without even knowing it until it’s too late. That’s why Proverbs 4:23 says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything else flows from it. And Luke 12:14 tells us Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I’ve learned, sometimes through bitter experience, what tempts me, but the question I want to leave with you today is this… What are you tempted by?