I am in the middle of a serious character test right now and I need to keep my mind ON it so that I won't give into the temptation to take the easy way out!

Thank God, literally, thank GOD that I am not just reading but studying Romans at the moment. I am in the middle of studying chapter 2. So when I came to the place tonight where I was sitting there trying to figure out a way to obey God and get what I wanted (NOT possible in my situation\ MOST situations) I was glad that this verse immediately came to mind:

"To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the turth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Romans 2:7-8

WHEW, that was close!

This is such a good verse to have when you are being tempted to go down a path that you know is self-serving!

One other thing I heard today that I thought was cool and relates to the temptation I am dealing with currently. I am still listening to Purpose Driven Life. Today, Rick was talking about temptation. He said that NOWHERE in the Bible does it say to resist tempation! If it weren't Rick Warren saying it then I would probably say "Noooooooo, I hear that all the time, it must be in the Bible!" His point was so true that I completely understood why it's not in the Bible. He said that if you are trying to resist temptation then you are trying to take your mind off of it and that doesn't work!! The more you try NOT to think about something, the more of a temptation it becomes. For example, diets are tough and lots of times don't work because you try so hard to tell yourself that you are not hungry that you talk yourself into being hungry!! Hahaha, so true. Anyways, he says that the Biblical principle here is to REFOCUS your mind. You have to focus on truths that completely outweigh the temptation. That is why it is so important to KNOW Scripture. When Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days and the devil said things like "eat, you are hungry" Jesus didn't say "No I'm not." He refocused His mind on Scripture to combat temptation! When I opened my Bible and read that verse in Romans I had concrete evidence that I was headed down the wrong path, and I threw it in the devil's face...sucker :)