1. Look beyond the lure! See Satan for who he is: a thief, a destroyer, a liar, a deceiver with a plan, a plot and a strategy to tempt and destroy your life!

2. Know your weaknesses. If your weakness is sex with your boyfriend, don’t be alone with him. Kellie Copeland says, “The time to decide not to sleep with him is not when you’re in his bedroom. The time to decide is before you even go out with him.”

You ?ght fear with a plan! Why? Because you know you’ll be tempted. You’ve recognized it’s a weakness in your ?esh. You know the outcome will not be good. Remember: when Satan observes a weakness in your behavior, he makes note of it to bring that temptation back into your life over and over until you fall. He will, on purpose, arrange for you to be alone with him so you’ll be so tempted to give in.

Think back over your life. Where have you had the most struggles? Be honest with yourself. Satan knows your weaknesses, your vulnerabilities – you need to know them!

3. Get an accountability partner. It’s amazing how having accountability to someone else will help you stay strong. You need someone you can trust and con?de in. You need to be able to tell someone, “I have a weakness in this area and I want you to hold me accountable for staying focused”. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron.” We need each other. Proverbs 18:1 says, “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all sound wisdom.”

We need to help each other and not freak out when someone tells us their weakness. Just because your weakness may not be their weakness, don’t put them down or look down on them. Build them up! Help them stay strong. I’ve heard people say that we are the only ARMY who beats up their wounded when they’re down. We need to build each other up, help each other stay strong, not judge each other.

4. Value your life. God has given you an assignment and a certain period of time on earth to ful?ll your assignment. Satan’s knows that, too! That’s why he must work overtime to tempt you! God has something special for you to accomplish. You have to guard your heart and not allow just anything in there. My mom says, “Don’t let your heart be like a Denny’s Restaurant: Always open! 24 hours a day… everybody welcome!”

Romans 6 (Message Bible) says, “As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. “But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more life on the way!” God can rebuild anything that’s been demolished!

5. Pray. Pray. Pray. “Pray so you won’t come into temptation.” (Matt. 26). I saw a billboard one time that read: 7 days without prayer makes one weak! Remember, temptation comes to us all. We never get to a place in our lives where there’s no more temptation. It’s something we all have to daily guard ourselves against. The best way to stay guarded is to stay focused on a daily plan to spend time with God.

God is available to help you 24 hours a day! He never gets irritated or impatient when we keep coming back to Him. His love is everlasting! If you have to cry out for God 500 times in one day – do it! Spend some time with God today – even if it’s 5 minutes. Be conscious of His presence at all times. The more time you spend just talking with Him, the closer you’ll get to Him. The closer you get to Him, the more you don’t want to disappoint Him. Value the life God has given you. It’s precious. It’s signi?cant. It’s not wasted. It’s not over.

After all, God has the original tailor-made plan for your life. It appeals to your greatest strengths, talents and abilities. He’s been sizing you up for a custom-designed future!