In The Word

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Resolved, to be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality.

Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.

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Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances don’t hinder.

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(HT: Desiring God Blog)

Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

Again and again, Solomon takes something initially appealing, and says, “Now wait, don’t look away just yet, Bunky. I want you to see what this leads to.” And then he ruthlessly and relentlessly tears the misty, gauzy mask off of the tempting path. As it were, he grabs us by the scruff of the neck, and says, “Now you look. Keep looking! Now, do you see what happens?”I call this the “Consider the end” theme in Proverbs.

. . .

Sin never presents itself to us in all its repugnant, pustulent hideousness. How would that be tempting? No, it sells itself as harmless at worst, desirable and delightful at best. The knife is always hidden behind the back.

The way of wisdom is to consider the end of this temptation. Relentlessly and mercilessly go beyond the pleasing exterior. If you respond to this enticement, what comes next? And then what? And what after that?

Force yourself to see how the lingering look can lead to a flirtation; the flirtation to emotional involvement; the emotional involvement to physical involvement; the physical involvement to the shaming of the name of God, the heartbroken betrayal of every loved one, the destruction of character, to ruin and shame and misery. Connect the dots.

And then?

If you shrink from the destination, don’t take the turnoff.
Dan Phillips, Temptation: A Key Element is. . .

Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.