A plan for dealing with temptation (and failure)

A plan for biblical response to temptation might include the following items:

(1) recognize and acknowledge in the earliest stages of temptation that you are being tempted; (2) quickly ask God for His help to resist; (3) if possible, remove yourself immediately from the source of temptation; (4) identify the unbiblical desire that would be served by yielding to the temptation; (5) quote and meditate on appropriate Scripture; (6) remind yourself of God’s presence, power, and promises; (7) reflect on the purpose of Christ’s death; (8) mentally and verbally make a commitment to do the godly thing; (9) get busy with a mind-engaging, godly activity; (10) call a godly friend and ask for help; (11) repeat key aspects of this temptation plan until the power of the temptation is reduced.

Since change is usually a process rather than an event, people often experience setbacks in their efforts to become more godly. Yet this frequently takes people by surprise, and because they have come to counseling with unrealistic expectations (that progress will be swift, easy, and continuous), they become discouraged by the struggles and failures. When this happens, they tend to think that no progress has been made, that counseling is useless, and that they have not, cannot, and will not ever change.

At this point it is critical for the success of the counseling to develop a recovery plan (a what-to-do-with-failure plan). Counselees must know that while failure is serious and was not unavoidable, it does not mean all that they have judged it to mean. Lapses there may be, but the lapse (a failure, a temporary defeat or setback) does not have to turn into a relapse (a total defeat, a complete return to former ungodliness, a thorough domination by and yielding to sinful patterns). God’s people may fall, but by His grace and power they can and will get up, learn from the experience, go on, and triumph over their sinful patterns of life.

A recovery plan could include the following steps:

(1) call unbiblical desires, thoughts, feelings, and actions what God does—sin; (2) take full responsibility for the sin; (3) confess the sin, both to God and to any others who were hurt; (4) ask God for help in not doing it again; (5) remind yourself what Christ has done and is doing for you; (6) reflect on the resources available to believers in Christ; (7) meditate on God’s promises of forgiveness and deliverance from the power of sin; (8) accurately evaluate the changes that have already occurred and the progress that has been made; (9) learn from failure by briefly examining what you did that you should not have done and what you did not do that you should have done; (10) make restitution where necessary; (11) purpose to put the past behind you in a biblical way and to resume your efforts to change in a godly manner.