Latest / Prayer Before Work / Resolve Before Temptation - Prayer Before Work
Transcript
- Sean Graver: You know, the moment you're standing in the tempting situation is the worst possible time to decide what your values are. Hey, I'm Sean, and welcome to Prayer Before Work. Now there's a guy early in the Bible named Daniel who got dragged into a foreign king's court as a young man. He's pressured to eat food and drink wine that would have compromised his faith. But here's what scripture says that he did. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself. Now that's Daniel chapter one, verse eight. And notice it didn't say that Daniel wrestled with it in the moment and decided to stand firm. No, it says he resolved it ahead of time. He had pre-decided. Most of us don't lose our integrity in one big collapse. You know, we lose it in many small moments where we hadn't decided anything in advance. So we're negotiating with ourselves in real time. And often that's when we're under pressure or we're tired, maybe with everyone watching to see what will happen and what we'll do. And that's a losing setup because willpower is a depleting resource. It tends to be strongest in the morning and weakest by the afternoon on a hard day, especially. Which it's not coincidental that that's exactly when most ki compromises happen, they get us into trouble. Now Daniel's move should be our move. He didn't wait until the temptation was right in front of him to figure out what he believed. He decided beforehand, this is where the line is, and I'm not moving it, no matter who is asking or what it costs me. Wow, what would it be like for you to do that this week? Telling yourself I'll do the right thing? It's too vague. It's too easy to bend. You have to make it more specific. I don't inflate numbers even under pressure. I don't talk about people negatively who aren't in the room. I leave by six PM for my family, no exceptions. So decide it now while you're clear headed and nobody's asking anything of you. Then when the moment comes, you're not deciding. You're just following through on a decision you already made. So let's pray about this. God, we don't want to keep making the same decision over and over, worn down a little more each time. Help us settle our convictions now, before the pressure hits, so that we're not deciding on the fly. Lord, give us Daniel's kind of resolve, clear, calm, and decided in advance. And when the test comes, remind us that we have already answered it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Go make today count.