James 1:14-15

"But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).

I've always felt this passage of Scripture was a tough pill to swallow not because I disagreed with it, but that it placed a mirror before my heart.

At the core, no man wants to admit he chose to sin. We would rather say we fell into temptation as if we tripped over a bump in the road, or the devil made us do it, or we were provoked and led astray by someone else (thus blame-shifting).

Taking ownership over our inability to resist our fleshly desires is our biggest obstacle to overcoming pride, yet it is the last straw we choose when conviction comes.

The gift of the Holy Spirit cannot be undervalued in this process. The Spirit's prompting is literally our life-saving flotation device in the ocean of sin, yet we feel compelled to tread water on our own instead. Why?

I believe the answer lies somewhere between being naïve and pride that makes us spiritually blind to our own blindness. Regardless, the truth remains that we are the source of our deepest anguish when temptations comes.

The ESV Study Bible paints a perfect picture-definition of lured and enticed: "A fishing metaphor for drawing prey away from shelter in order to trap them with a deadly hook."

How often do we realize that OUR OWN fleshly desires draw us away from our safe haven in Christ, like a sea lion caught in the jaws if a killer whale? We certainly stretch our limits to see where the sin boundaries are in our lives, but we completely lose sight that desire leads to sin and death in the blink of an eye.

Thankfully, God understood our dilemma and provided both a temporary way of escape via free-will to choose righteousness over sin in the moment, and an eternal way of escape that bought our freedom unto salvation. I simply pray that we all realize the gift we have been given BEFORE temptation arises.