Today I want to pass along something I learned from pastor and author Joe Dallas on resisting temptation. The distraction technique helps you resist the many visual triggers we all experience every day.
For an alcoholic, this might be a Budweiser commercial on TV, or a billboard advertisement on the highway. For a shopoholic this might be storefront windows at the mall or the QVC channel. Or for someone struggling with a sexual addiction, visual triggers are everywhere.
Regardless of what your specific addiction is, suffice it to say there are endless supply of visual triggers that are designed to entice you (to tempt you), but implementing the distraction technique can help. It’s a simple three-part exercise: shift, breathe, recite (and it will help you build some resisting muscle so you can be strong against temptation).
1. Shift
Our goal is to reduce the triggers in the environments we have control over. But there will be times where we don’t have control over the environment and where we’ll experience triggers, even if we aren’t looking for them. These are opportunities to exercise and workout our resisting muscles. And we do that when we choose to shift our attention and focus quickly on to something other than what is tempting us.
Some of you might push back - what’s the big deal about looking? I thought the rule was “look but don’t touch”? I would reply that looking leads to touching! The Bible calls a second look “entertainment” and teaches that it leads to “indulgence”. Take King David of the Old Testament for example.
2 Samuel 11:1-5, In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army...But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba...the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her... 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” (NIV)
Enticement - David saw a beautiful woman bathing
Entertainment - David sent someone to find out about her
Indulgence - David slept with her
Now, according to Scripture at what stage did David lose the battle? The entertainment stage, right? It’s not a sin to be enticed. And as much as we may try to minimize our enticements, we can never fully avoid them. But the line was crossed when he took that second look, when he began entertaining sleeping with her even though she was not his wife. That had to be an idea in his head before it became a reality in his life. The Bible teaches that entertainment leads to indulgence.
SO THE KEY is to stop temptation at the enticement stage by SHIFTING our attention quickly to something else before we begin to entertain the enticement.
So when you’re hit with a visual trigger, you have to shift visual gears, by refocusing your eyes immediately to something safe. When you do this you are mentally changing the channel. If you’re watching TV and your kids are in the room and something scary comes on, you change the channel quickly, right? Why? Because you want to quickly divert their attention to something else before what they see begins to negatively affect them. Similarly, when we encounter a visual trigger, we want to quickly divert our attention to something else, before the trigger begins to negatively effect us (and before we’re so enticed we begin to entertain). Temptation acts like one of those blood pressure cuffs the nurse uses to check your blood pressure. With every squeeze the grip tightens, right? Similarly, every second you continue looking at whatever is tempting you, temptation's grip tightens. As you know from getting your blood pressure taken, it doesn’t take long for the grip to get real tight.
Jesus alluded to the power of our eyes in Luke 11:34 when he said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.” The principle here is that: what you focus on has more impact than you’ve probably realized. This is especially true regarding temptation. You have to look away quickly before you’re unable to break free from temptations grip.
And that’s what “shifting” is all about.
2. Breathe
Isn’t it true that breathing can actually help us regain control? If your kid is crying and can’t be consoled, what do you tell them? Take a deep breath, right? If you’re so angry you're ready to punch someone in the face, a good friend might try to calm you down saying “hey, take a couple deep breaths”. If you've been in a car accident and are frantic and the paramedics arrive, they will instruct you to sit down and take a couple deep breaths. God designed our bodies in a way where breathing can help us regain control. And we should take advantage of this fact when battling our addictions.
3. Recite
The best way to battle temptation is to do it the same way Jesus did. When tempted Jesus fought temptation with Scripture.
While there are a number of verses that could be specifically applied to your specific temptation, let me share a good general verse you could recite when tempted, regardless of what the temptation may be. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” Recite this verse to remind yourself that your temptation doesn’t have to take you because God will always show you a way out.
I want to encourage you to start practicing this technique the next time anything in your environment tempts you. Shift your focus, take a couple deep breaths to regain control and recite some appropriate Scriptures. Every time you do, you are exercising your resisting muscles and strengthening your ability to say no to sin, and yes to God.
For an alcoholic, this might be a Budweiser commercial on TV, or a billboard advertisement on the highway. For a shopoholic this might be storefront windows at the mall or the QVC channel. Or for someone struggling with a sexual addiction, visual triggers are everywhere.
Regardless of what your specific addiction is, suffice it to say there are endless supply of visual triggers that are designed to entice you (to tempt you), but implementing the distraction technique can help. It’s a simple three-part exercise: shift, breathe, recite (and it will help you build some resisting muscle so you can be strong against temptation).
1. Shift
Our goal is to reduce the triggers in the environments we have control over. But there will be times where we don’t have control over the environment and where we’ll experience triggers, even if we aren’t looking for them. These are opportunities to exercise and workout our resisting muscles. And we do that when we choose to shift our attention and focus quickly on to something other than what is tempting us.
Some of you might push back - what’s the big deal about looking? I thought the rule was “look but don’t touch”? I would reply that looking leads to touching! The Bible calls a second look “entertainment” and teaches that it leads to “indulgence”. Take King David of the Old Testament for example.
2 Samuel 11:1-5, In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army...But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba...the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her... 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” (NIV)
Enticement - David saw a beautiful woman bathing
Entertainment - David sent someone to find out about her
Indulgence - David slept with her
Now, according to Scripture at what stage did David lose the battle? The entertainment stage, right? It’s not a sin to be enticed. And as much as we may try to minimize our enticements, we can never fully avoid them. But the line was crossed when he took that second look, when he began entertaining sleeping with her even though she was not his wife. That had to be an idea in his head before it became a reality in his life. The Bible teaches that entertainment leads to indulgence.
SO THE KEY is to stop temptation at the enticement stage by SHIFTING our attention quickly to something else before we begin to entertain the enticement.
So when you’re hit with a visual trigger, you have to shift visual gears, by refocusing your eyes immediately to something safe. When you do this you are mentally changing the channel. If you’re watching TV and your kids are in the room and something scary comes on, you change the channel quickly, right? Why? Because you want to quickly divert their attention to something else before what they see begins to negatively affect them. Similarly, when we encounter a visual trigger, we want to quickly divert our attention to something else, before the trigger begins to negatively effect us (and before we’re so enticed we begin to entertain). Temptation acts like one of those blood pressure cuffs the nurse uses to check your blood pressure. With every squeeze the grip tightens, right? Similarly, every second you continue looking at whatever is tempting you, temptation's grip tightens. As you know from getting your blood pressure taken, it doesn’t take long for the grip to get real tight.
Jesus alluded to the power of our eyes in Luke 11:34 when he said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.” The principle here is that: what you focus on has more impact than you’ve probably realized. This is especially true regarding temptation. You have to look away quickly before you’re unable to break free from temptations grip.
And that’s what “shifting” is all about.
2. Breathe
Isn’t it true that breathing can actually help us regain control? If your kid is crying and can’t be consoled, what do you tell them? Take a deep breath, right? If you’re so angry you're ready to punch someone in the face, a good friend might try to calm you down saying “hey, take a couple deep breaths”. If you've been in a car accident and are frantic and the paramedics arrive, they will instruct you to sit down and take a couple deep breaths. God designed our bodies in a way where breathing can help us regain control. And we should take advantage of this fact when battling our addictions.
3. Recite
The best way to battle temptation is to do it the same way Jesus did. When tempted Jesus fought temptation with Scripture.
While there are a number of verses that could be specifically applied to your specific temptation, let me share a good general verse you could recite when tempted, regardless of what the temptation may be. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” Recite this verse to remind yourself that your temptation doesn’t have to take you because God will always show you a way out.
I want to encourage you to start practicing this technique the next time anything in your environment tempts you. Shift your focus, take a couple deep breaths to regain control and recite some appropriate Scriptures. Every time you do, you are exercising your resisting muscles and strengthening your ability to say no to sin, and yes to God.
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