November 25, 2025 • 26 mins
Often times we think the devil is lurking round every corner, waiting to tempt us, when really it can be the other way around. The devil is not tempting you, youre tempting the devil. Our lifestyles, triggers and influences that we let in could very well be what makes us easy prey to the enemy.
Let's talk accountability and not letting the enemy in, especially around the holidays,
Let's talk accountability and not letting the enemy in, especially around the holidays,
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi guys, welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast. You're
here with your host Amani on the podcast where we
discuss our Christian based topics and deepening our relationship with
the load. Y'all. Thanksgiving is this week, am I the
only one that feels like October and November just flew by.
We are going to be in December next week. Twenty
(00:22):
twenty five is almost over. Like if you ain't locked in,
you got a month to lock in and do something
with your twenty twenty five. It's never too late. Okay.
With that being said, let me just start off the
episode with this. First of all, if you are not
a subscriber, go ahead and like and subscribe. Okay, you
are missing out sis. You're missing out on the podcast,
(00:43):
on the community, and on the Christian Girls Trip. So
over the weekend if you're not following the ig or
the TikTok, which you should be, Okay, I announced where
we are going on our twenty twenty six Christian Girls Trip, y'all.
We are going to Cape Town, South Africa. Like so
Lux Tribes and I. We went through a few different
(01:04):
options and initially we had settled on something else. So
it took a little while for me to actually announce
it because we were tying up loose sins basically. But
South Africa, I have such a large audience there. I
get dms from the girlies in South Africa, okay all
the time telling me how much they love and support
the channel. I have a really big fan base there
and so when they proposed that, I was like, that
(01:27):
would be absolutely amazing because while I'm there, I get
to connect with some of my audience hopefully. So if
you guys want to be a part of the twenty
twenty six Christian Girls Trip, what we do is a
bunch of us Christian ladies. We get together because sometimes
it's hard to find people that travel. I love to travel,
so that's my hobby, and it's hard to find friends
to travel with, let alone Christian friends. Right, people want
(01:51):
to travel, they want to party, they want to drink,
they want to go out. We are not doing that
in every area of life. We're going to glorify the Lord.
He is the reason for the season, He's the reason
for the vacation. Right. He gives us the provision and
he gives us the safety. And so we're not gonna
forget about him when we travel and when we vacation,
and so that's what the trip is all about. That's
why I formed this Christian girls trip group last year.
(02:14):
Last year we went to Bali. This year we're going
to Cape Town, South Africa. So I have not dropped
the link to the deats and the itinerary just yet.
That will be coming out this week. So make sure,
like I said that you're on the Instagram, the TikTok,
that you're on a maniwortham dot com and you've subscribed
to the emails all that good stuff because all the
details will be going out for you guys to send
(02:35):
in your deposits everything. I have ten spots, okay, that's
what Lux Tribes gives me. We're going with Lux Tribes.
They are curating everything. If you travel with them before.
They are a black woman owned travel company. This will
be my third trip with them. It's always amazing, Okay.
They take care of absolutely everything. It's just an amazing time.
We're gonna do six nights. It's gonna be a week
(02:55):
long trip in South Africa. So spots you guys, So
if you want to be a part of the June
twenty twenty sixth trip. Make sure that you are following
and that you get the information so that you are
one of the ten women that can come. Okay, it's
going to be amazing. I have so many good plans
for it. So just letting you guys know that all
the links will be in the description box. I always
(03:18):
want to say caption. It's gonna be in the description
box for you guys. I'm super excited for it. I
just cannot wait. It's going to be absolutely amazing and
really a time for Christian women to come together and
make new friends, vacation with like minded women and just
have a good time. Y'all. So let's get into the episode.
Like I said, Thanksgiving its coming up, Okay, and one
(03:41):
thing that I know may trigger a lot of us,
especially those of us who may be the only saved
ones in our families, the only saved ones in our
friend groups. You know, when you feel obligated to be
around friends and family. I don't want to say obligated,
like we don't like to be around our family, but
of course you want to be around your family. But
sometimes it's harder for some of us than it is
(04:02):
for others. Sometimes we're not as close to our family
because we are the only saved ones, and we feel
ostracized and we feel like, oh, they're just gonna want
to drink and smoke. You know a lot of times,
you know, it's a lot of jokes about running to
the store on Thanksgiving with your cousins, or we make
fun of oh, who's gonna be the drunk uncles and
the drunk aunties, And we make light of a lot
of that stuff. But that's truly what goes on when
(04:24):
we have family celebrations. People take it as the opportunity
to just get drunk, smoke weed, eat a lot of food,
all the craziness that may come with our families for
the holidays. And one thing that I heard recently a
pastor say that was just so good, Like, you know
(04:46):
how you just hear these very simple sayings that totally
reverses the way that you think about something. So I
heard a pastor say recently, the devil is not tempting you.
You are tempting the devil, okay, And the way that
we tempt the devil. There's a few points I want
(05:09):
to talk about. Number One, you can tempt the devil
with your lifestyle. Your lifestyle the way that you live
your life can open so many doors for the devil
to have a foothold. It may not be your lifestyle,
but it's the things that easily, very easily trip you up. Right.
(05:29):
The enemy knows your triggers, he knows what made you
fall and stumble last time, he knows what you're still
weak with. He watches you right. So that's another example
of don't give the devil a foothold. Be strong with
your convictions, be strong with what you're going to say
yes and no to. And then that leads me to
the third thing, And that's why I brought up family.
(05:51):
Sometimes we let influences from other people dictate what we
are going to do, and the enemy knows that. That's
also a strong in our lives, wanting to always be
accepted by our family, even when we've been set apart.
So we're going to talk about those three things and
how those three things sometimes can trip the saints up
(06:12):
on living a life that is holy, set apart that's
a little bit different, so that you can be effective, right,
and how we can stop always blaming you on the
devil and take accountability for what we're doing so that
we don't give room for the devil, because, like I said,
like the pastor said, sometimes it's not the devil tempting you,
(06:34):
you are tempting him. And let's talk about those ways
that we tempt the devil and how we can cut
that off, especially with the holidays around when some of
us may be triggered by friends and family. So first,
let me explain this. I want to explain and expand
on what I mean when I say the devil is
not tempting you. You're tempting him right with your lifestyle,
(06:55):
with the things that you're triggered by, with the influences
that you let influence your life. Let's go to Job
chapter one. Let's start in verse seven. And the Lord
said to Satan, from where do you come? So Satan
answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro
on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.
(07:19):
Now we know that the job of the enemy is
to kill, steal, and destroy. Right, And we also know
that the enemy does not have the powers of the Lord. Right.
He is not omniscient, he is not omnipresent. He is
just one spirit. Does he have many helpers, yes, but
he is not someone that's in all places at all times,
(07:41):
and every time you are tempted, it's because of the devil. Right,
that's not the way that it works. I believe that
what scripture is telling us about how the enemy operates
starts in Job one seven. He says that he is
walking back and forth on the earth. So that's how
we know that he is not in all places all time. Right,
If he's telling us that he's just walking the earth,
(08:03):
and we know what his job is, he is seeking
something out, and that's what the scripture tells us as well.
First Peter five eight says, be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And it's not a coincidence
that the scripture likens how the devil seeks us out
(08:25):
to how lions hunt. It says that he walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. One
thing I learned about how lions specifically hunts is that
you know that lions are cats, right, And we know
that cats sleep a lot. They need a lot of energy.
They are big cats, right, They sleep for most of
(08:45):
the time. Actually, the men sleep like most of the day,
and the women are the ones that hunt, but still
they sleep a lot. It takes a lot of energy
to hunt, So if something takes a lot of energy
and you have to conserve that energy, you are going
to go after what easy, right, You're not going to
go after the hardest attack. A lion is not necessarily
going to go after the fastest one in a pack
(09:07):
of antelope. The way that lions hunt is that they
hunt easy prey. They go after calves, babies if they're
away from their moms. They go after sick animals. They
go after injured animals because it takes so much energy
to actually kill an animal and run after them. They're
not going to go after what's hard. They go after
what is weak, injured, what's left behind, babies. And that's
(09:31):
exactly what the enemy does, right. So if he is
not omniscient and omnipresent, he doesn't know what every single
person is doing at all times, and he is simply
walking to and fro on the earth, seeking whom he
may devour. Like a lion, he's seeking out who's easy.
They're seeking out the isolated Christian. They're seeking out the
Christian that does not have community. They don't have people
(09:53):
around them holding them accountable. They don't have maybe discipleship,
they don't have a church. They're watching church at home.
They're always by themselves. They're not being edified in community.
And we know that a commandment in the Bible is
to not forsake the assembly of the Saints, because that's
for our edification. Right. He is seeking baby Christians, lions,
(10:16):
They seek calves, the ones that have been left behind
by their moms, or their moms aren't paying attention. The
devil's going after baby Christians who probably don't really know
the scripture. They can't bring scripture to mind to seek
a way of escaping temptation. They probably haven't gone through
things to really strengthen their walk with the Lord. There's
(10:36):
still baby Christians. He goes after the week, the Christians
who are constantly stumbling on the same things. So if
your strong cold in life has been smoking weed, the
devil sees it. So as soon as you are stumbling
with that, and you have that friend that you just
won't let go of, and the Lord has been told
you cut off that friend because they always smoking, and
(10:56):
you know that that's your weakness, and you have not
cut off that friend. So every time that friend comes
around and they start rolling up right, and you sit
in there and you have been months clean, you ain't
smoked in months, but this friend comes around, and now
all of a sudden, you wanna puffet once. You are
giving the devil a foothold. Right, So he goes after
(11:16):
the weak Christians, just like a lion goes after easy prey.
And when you read James one, p. Fourteen, it says,
but each one is tempted when he is drawn away
by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is
full grown, brings forth death. So the Word is telling us, right,
(11:38):
it's not the devil lurking around every corner. He's not
hiding behind the door dangling something in front of you.
What actually happens is we have our own selfish desires.
All of us have sin within us, regardless from birth, right,
So we have our own desires. But the desire is
not necessarily the sin. It's when we allow things to
(11:59):
come into our life that tempt us. And the devil
is constantly seeing these repeated patterns in our lives, right
like I talked about with weed smoking. You still have
not cut off that friend who smokes every time they're
around you. If you are struggling with lust and you're
struggling with sex, maybe as a Christian, and you're trying
to abstain because you're not married, but you have not
(12:20):
cut off that X that you used to have sex with.
And that's a tie for you that you have not
You still have their number. You haven't blocked them because
oh what if an emergency happens? Girl, That man ain't
calling you in case of an emergency. He ain't calling
you with his tire ruptures. He got triple A. Stop it,
(12:41):
stop it. You know, we're so afraid to cut off
these ties because you know, sometimes we're afraid that the
Lord won't replace some quick enough. These are people that
we have emotionally leaned on. But you know, at some
point we got to grow up and we have to
mature beyond these selfish desires. Like I said, the desires
(13:02):
in themselves are not the sin. It's what happens when
you don't cut the desires off and you allow these
things to keep coming into your life. So I know,
for me, one thing that I have really committed myself
to is not drinking for several reasons. I have a
whole episode on it. But for me, it's like drinking. Right.
Both sides of my family, my mom's side and my
(13:25):
dad's side, love to drink. It is guaranteed that at
every opportunity when they get together, there is It's not
just beer and wine, y'all, is full blown liquor at
every event. It don't matter, right, And it's very easy
(13:46):
for me to be like, one beer won't hurt, and
will one beer hurt? No? Right, I most likely am
not gonna get drunk off one beer, especially at Thanksgiving
when I'm eating at the same time. But just knowing
how if I say something publicly, If I say I'm
not going to drink, and then my family does see
(14:06):
me drinking a beer, They're not going to say anything
to me, probably, but it is a it's a wrench
in my testimony. You know, I recently drank wine at
a restaurant and I didn't even finish the whole glass
of wine, and I kind of felt convicted about it.
There wasn't really people around like that, but just the
public drinking in itself. I was like, hmm, this isn't
(14:30):
my testimony, you know, Like, this isn't what I said
I was going to do. Did I get drunk, Absolutely not.
I was nowhere near drunk from a few SIPs of wine.
But it was still something about it that I was like,
this isn't for me, Like it's just not for me,
Like sitting around drinking wine is just not for me anymore.
And a lot of times the enemy knows when to
(14:51):
attack when we are comfortable, when we're around friends and
family and the music is playing and people are laughing
in our defense down a little bit more, we are
not as aware as we would be if we were alone,
you know. And it's almost like not necessarily a peer
pressure I you know, if you have family that really
(15:13):
loves you and respects you, it's not like they're going
to peer pressure you. But it's almost the peer pressure
that we put on ourselves, like, oh, everyone else is drinking,
I won't get drunk, huh. You know. Sometimes that's how
I am where I'm like, no one's gonna care if
I have a beer, and nobody will. But it's not
about other people caring. It's about what trips me up.
(15:36):
Am I giving the devil a foothold by having one beer.
Am I doing something that's going to risk my testimony
by having one glass of wine? That's what it's really about.
It's about not doing anything that's going to draw me
into the temptation. Because the devil isn't sitting in my
house with his watch out just waiting for me to
(15:59):
have a glass of wine. You know, he comes around
when he sees that I'm looking at the wine. He
comes around when he sees that I've had that beer.
And now that one beer might turn into two. Then
it might turn into oh, I gonna have a glass
of wine. Then it might turn into a margarita, and
then might turn into shots, and then it might turn
into me thinking that going to a lounge is okay.
(16:20):
It starts off small, y'all, But that's exactly what a
foothold is. It's not always this big, blatant thing in
your life. It does start off small. And I know,
around the holidays, like I said, our defenses are down.
We're comfortable, we're happy, we're with family. We think that
the small things don't really matter, but they do, y'all,
(16:43):
They really do. And I would even argue that when
you're around family, you should be a little bit more
strict with these things that might give the devil a
foothold in your life, because you want to give a
good example to them. Sometimes when we're by ourselves, things
don't really matter as much because because we know ourselves,
you know what I mean. Even then, it shouldn't when
(17:03):
you're alone, you shouldn't give those things a foothold in
your life, but especially when people are observing you. Hebrews
twelve to one says, therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us. So if we know that
(17:25):
there are things that are just easily going to trip
us up, don't even do it. Sis, don't reach for
the wine bottle, don't walk to the store with your
cousin that's going to be rolling up and puff puffing
in the car. You know, just don't do it. And
the Word is telling us, because we have these witnesses
around us, let's not give the devil a foothold. Let's
(17:48):
not be a bad example to our families. Let's just
be very conscious, especially around the holidays, to our actions
and how they're going to affect how we present Christ
to people, because that's what it's all about. You know.
We did a little miniseries that ended last week when
we were talking about John four and the Woman at
(18:09):
the Well, and we ended talking about evangelism, and evangelism
doesn't always have to look like you opening up a
Bible and reciting versus. Sometimes your evangelistic approach, especially with
friends and family, is just your lifestyle. It's just them
seeing that you are not going to do what they do.
Sometimes that is all it takes. Loving people and living
(18:33):
differently is sometimes the biggest testimony and the biggest witness
to the Lord living in our lives. And sometimes that's
all our friends and family needs to see. Now that
we have a greater understanding actually of how we have
to take accountability to how we tempt the devil to
come into our lives, right about how we give him
(18:53):
the platform, we give him the strongholds in our lives
to trip us up. Now that we understand that, I
want to give y'all some good new surrounding that. Because
he is not omnipresent, because he is not omniscient, right,
and he has to walk and seek and see who's
the weak and the isolated and the divided, because that's
his tactic, and he is limited in that way. That
(19:15):
is good news because we serve a Lord, a God
who is omniscient, who is omnipresent, who is sovereign, who
has his hand in all things at all times. Right,
he does not force us. But one thing that the
Word tells us is even if we do reach the
level beyond our desires, and now we are being tempted
(19:36):
by the devil, the Lord always gives us a way
of escape out of that temptation. First Corinthians ten thirteen says,
no temptation has overtaken you, accept such as is common
to man. But God is faithful who will not allow
you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But
with the temptation will also make the way of escape
that you may be able to bear it. So that's
(19:58):
good news, right, Like we talked about how the devil
actually works, how we give the devil of footholds the
things that we should not be doing, staying vigilant during
the holidays. But the Lord is over it all. He
is in control over it all, and with every temptation
that we endure in life, he always gives us a
way of escape out of it. Isn't that amazing? Isn't
(20:22):
that amazing to know that there's always a lifeline, there's
always a life boat, there's always a raft, there's always
a way of escape for you. You know. Another limitation
of the enemy is that he never creates anything new. Y'all.
You are not being tempted in any new way, in
any super creative way. It's always based on you in
(20:45):
your life. So it allows you to take accountability and say,
what am I doing that I am giving the devil
a foothold, and then you can just cut it out.
The Bible is telling us that we are never tempted
beyond what we are able to bear, and he is
giving you that very specific and tailored way of escape
out of that temptation. That's good news for us. But
(21:09):
to know that he is omniscient when the enemy is not,
to know that he is omni present when the enemy
is not, to know that he's in control of it
all when the enemy is not, and to know that
he is faithful when we are being tempted and always
gives us a way out. It's the assurance that we need.
(21:29):
It's the assurance that you can go into this holiday
season being a good example to your friends and your family.
I definitely need that word. I have my little sister
flying in to meet our dad's oude of the family.
If you guys don't know, I just met my dad's
extended side of the family just three years ago through
an ancestry DNA test and my great grandmother found me
(21:51):
on there. So I'm the only one of my father's
kids that have met his family, like his aunt's, his uncle,
his grand parents. You know, I'm the oldest. I'm the
only one that has met them. So now I want
all my other siblings to come in and meet them,
because our great grandparents at this point, they're in their
nineties and I want my family or my siblings to
(22:12):
meet them while they still have the chance to, you know.
And so one of my little sisters, I'm flying her in.
She's getting in actually, you know today actually, and yeah,
she's gonna have the chance to spend Thanksgiving with me,
and I have not seen her in years. She's gonna
have the chance to meet our father's side of the family.
(22:32):
I know that they're gonna be so excited to meet her.
So you know, I just take these opportunities. As I'm
meeting more family and I'm putting myself in position to
have my siblings come out, and you know, like stuff
like that, I am just taking the opportunity. And I'm
just praying, like, God, give me opportunity to live for
you and to be a noticeable difference to even talk
(22:55):
about you. Let you be brought up in conversation, Let
me start the conversation. Let me be courageous and bold.
Let me be that one family member, that one sibling,
the leader in my family that is going to live
differently and be a good example to my siblings. So
I'm really excited for that. So I just want to,
(23:15):
you know, encourage you all. Yes, there's going to be temptation,
but you get to decide if you get the devil
a foothold. You get to decide that right. And every
single time that we are tempted, God is right there.
He is right there. He is living inside of you,
He is walking next to you. He is giving you
(23:37):
a way of escape out of temptation. You have someone
that is advocating for you at all times. So you
can step into this season when you're going to see
your family, when you're going to see your friends, when
you're gonna be around people who probably aren't living the
same way that you are striving to live for, you
can do it boldly and confidently, knowing that the Lord
(23:58):
is there with you. And if you don't have that confidence,
you don't have the Holy Spirit living within you. Maybe
you have not given your life to the Lord yet
(24:19):
and you're still going through cycles of temptation and failure,
and you're just not living a life that is that
has been redeemed. You're not living a life that has
been created new. Let's just say that you don't have
that assurance. You can. You can have assurance of exactly
where you're gonna go when you die. You can have
assurance of who you live for while you're on earth,
(24:41):
and you can live a life that is above the
cycles of temptation, the cycles of falling, the cycles of stumbling.
You can find a way to live above that by
just accepting the Lord into your life and asking him
to come into your life, asking him to save you
from your sin, acknowledging that you sin, acknowledging that you
(25:02):
need him and that you want to live for him
and turn away from those cycles that we were talking
about before. You can have assurance of that today. You
don't have to keep questioning what's next, what you should
be doing with your life. Is there a life after death? Yes,
there is, and you are gonna live it somewhere. You're
either gonna live it with him or live without him,
(25:23):
and trust and believe you want to live it with him.
Romans ten nine says, if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart
that God has raised him from the dead, you will
be saved. And that's what it is. Salvation is a gift.
You did not earn it. The Lord loved you and
he died for you so that you can live with
him for eternity. You can have assurance of where you
(25:46):
are going when you pass away, because this life that
you are living on earth is not forever, but you
will spend forever somewhere, and you can have assurance of
where you are gonna spend that forever. I want us
to all live conquered, live, redeemed lives, new creation lives,
and definitely just be leaders in our families because, like
(26:08):
I said, sometimes we're the only saved person in the
family and it's hard, and I just want us to
get used to being the lights in the room and
exercise that this holiday season, all right, I hope that
you all have an amazing Thanksgiving. Once again, If you
guys want to be a part of the twenty twenty
six Christian Girls Trip, the link will be in the
(26:29):
description box. Make sure that you subscribe to the newsletter.
Make sure that you are on the Instagram and TikTok
so that you can get the link for the deposit
that will be coming up very soon for the trip
payment plans. All that good stuff will be available if
you guys want to come, and I will see you
in South Afrigot this summer. Happy Thanksgiving. I love you all.
(26:51):
I would talk to you later. Bye.
Hi guys, welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast. You're
here with your host Amani on the podcast where we
discuss our Christian based topics and deepening our relationship with
the load. Y'all. Thanksgiving is this week, am I the
only one that feels like October and November just flew by.
We are going to be in December next week. Twenty
(00:22):
twenty five is almost over. Like if you ain't locked in,
you got a month to lock in and do something
with your twenty twenty five. It's never too late. Okay.
With that being said, let me just start off the
episode with this. First of all, if you are not
a subscriber, go ahead and like and subscribe. Okay, you
are missing out sis. You're missing out on the podcast,
(00:43):
on the community, and on the Christian Girls Trip. So
over the weekend if you're not following the ig or
the TikTok, which you should be, Okay, I announced where
we are going on our twenty twenty six Christian Girls Trip, y'all.
We are going to Cape Town, South Africa. Like so
Lux Tribes and I. We went through a few different
(01:04):
options and initially we had settled on something else. So
it took a little while for me to actually announce
it because we were tying up loose sins basically. But
South Africa, I have such a large audience there. I
get dms from the girlies in South Africa, okay all
the time telling me how much they love and support
the channel. I have a really big fan base there
and so when they proposed that, I was like, that
(01:27):
would be absolutely amazing because while I'm there, I get
to connect with some of my audience hopefully. So if
you guys want to be a part of the twenty
twenty six Christian Girls Trip, what we do is a
bunch of us Christian ladies. We get together because sometimes
it's hard to find people that travel. I love to travel,
so that's my hobby, and it's hard to find friends
to travel with, let alone Christian friends. Right, people want
(01:51):
to travel, they want to party, they want to drink,
they want to go out. We are not doing that
in every area of life. We're going to glorify the Lord.
He is the reason for the season, He's the reason
for the vacation. Right. He gives us the provision and
he gives us the safety. And so we're not gonna
forget about him when we travel and when we vacation,
and so that's what the trip is all about. That's
why I formed this Christian girls trip group last year.
(02:14):
Last year we went to Bali. This year we're going
to Cape Town, South Africa. So I have not dropped
the link to the deats and the itinerary just yet.
That will be coming out this week. So make sure,
like I said that you're on the Instagram, the TikTok,
that you're on a maniwortham dot com and you've subscribed
to the emails all that good stuff because all the
details will be going out for you guys to send
(02:35):
in your deposits everything. I have ten spots, okay, that's
what Lux Tribes gives me. We're going with Lux Tribes.
They are curating everything. If you travel with them before.
They are a black woman owned travel company. This will
be my third trip with them. It's always amazing, Okay.
They take care of absolutely everything. It's just an amazing time.
We're gonna do six nights. It's gonna be a week
(02:55):
long trip in South Africa. So spots you guys, So
if you want to be a part of the June
twenty twenty sixth trip. Make sure that you are following
and that you get the information so that you are
one of the ten women that can come. Okay, it's
going to be amazing. I have so many good plans
for it. So just letting you guys know that all
the links will be in the description box. I always
(03:18):
want to say caption. It's gonna be in the description
box for you guys. I'm super excited for it. I
just cannot wait. It's going to be absolutely amazing and
really a time for Christian women to come together and
make new friends, vacation with like minded women and just
have a good time. Y'all. So let's get into the episode.
Like I said, Thanksgiving its coming up, Okay, and one
(03:41):
thing that I know may trigger a lot of us,
especially those of us who may be the only saved
ones in our families, the only saved ones in our
friend groups. You know, when you feel obligated to be
around friends and family. I don't want to say obligated,
like we don't like to be around our family, but
of course you want to be around your family. But
sometimes it's harder for some of us than it is
(04:02):
for others. Sometimes we're not as close to our family
because we are the only saved ones, and we feel
ostracized and we feel like, oh, they're just gonna want
to drink and smoke. You know a lot of times,
you know, it's a lot of jokes about running to
the store on Thanksgiving with your cousins, or we make
fun of oh, who's gonna be the drunk uncles and
the drunk aunties, And we make light of a lot
of that stuff. But that's truly what goes on when
(04:24):
we have family celebrations. People take it as the opportunity
to just get drunk, smoke weed, eat a lot of food,
all the craziness that may come with our families for
the holidays. And one thing that I heard recently a
pastor say that was just so good, Like, you know
(04:46):
how you just hear these very simple sayings that totally
reverses the way that you think about something. So I
heard a pastor say recently, the devil is not tempting you.
You are tempting the devil, okay, And the way that
we tempt the devil. There's a few points I want
(05:09):
to talk about. Number One, you can tempt the devil
with your lifestyle. Your lifestyle the way that you live
your life can open so many doors for the devil
to have a foothold. It may not be your lifestyle,
but it's the things that easily, very easily trip you up. Right.
(05:29):
The enemy knows your triggers, he knows what made you
fall and stumble last time, he knows what you're still
weak with. He watches you right. So that's another example
of don't give the devil a foothold. Be strong with
your convictions, be strong with what you're going to say
yes and no to. And then that leads me to
the third thing, And that's why I brought up family.
(05:51):
Sometimes we let influences from other people dictate what we
are going to do, and the enemy knows that. That's
also a strong in our lives, wanting to always be
accepted by our family, even when we've been set apart.
So we're going to talk about those three things and
how those three things sometimes can trip the saints up
(06:12):
on living a life that is holy, set apart that's
a little bit different, so that you can be effective, right,
and how we can stop always blaming you on the
devil and take accountability for what we're doing so that
we don't give room for the devil, because, like I said,
like the pastor said, sometimes it's not the devil tempting you,
(06:34):
you are tempting him. And let's talk about those ways
that we tempt the devil and how we can cut
that off, especially with the holidays around when some of
us may be triggered by friends and family. So first,
let me explain this. I want to explain and expand
on what I mean when I say the devil is
not tempting you. You're tempting him right with your lifestyle,
(06:55):
with the things that you're triggered by, with the influences
that you let influence your life. Let's go to Job
chapter one. Let's start in verse seven. And the Lord
said to Satan, from where do you come? So Satan
answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro
on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.
(07:19):
Now we know that the job of the enemy is
to kill, steal, and destroy. Right, And we also know
that the enemy does not have the powers of the Lord. Right.
He is not omniscient, he is not omnipresent. He is
just one spirit. Does he have many helpers, yes, but
he is not someone that's in all places at all times,
(07:41):
and every time you are tempted, it's because of the devil. Right,
that's not the way that it works. I believe that
what scripture is telling us about how the enemy operates
starts in Job one seven. He says that he is
walking back and forth on the earth. So that's how
we know that he is not in all places all time. Right,
If he's telling us that he's just walking the earth,
(08:03):
and we know what his job is, he is seeking
something out, and that's what the scripture tells us as well.
First Peter five eight says, be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And it's not a coincidence
that the scripture likens how the devil seeks us out
(08:25):
to how lions hunt. It says that he walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. One
thing I learned about how lions specifically hunts is that
you know that lions are cats, right, And we know
that cats sleep a lot. They need a lot of energy.
They are big cats, right, They sleep for most of
(08:45):
the time. Actually, the men sleep like most of the day,
and the women are the ones that hunt, but still
they sleep a lot. It takes a lot of energy
to hunt, So if something takes a lot of energy
and you have to conserve that energy, you are going
to go after what easy, right, You're not going to
go after the hardest attack. A lion is not necessarily
going to go after the fastest one in a pack
(09:07):
of antelope. The way that lions hunt is that they
hunt easy prey. They go after calves, babies if they're
away from their moms. They go after sick animals. They
go after injured animals because it takes so much energy
to actually kill an animal and run after them. They're
not going to go after what's hard. They go after
what is weak, injured, what's left behind, babies. And that's
(09:31):
exactly what the enemy does, right. So if he is
not omniscient and omnipresent, he doesn't know what every single
person is doing at all times, and he is simply
walking to and fro on the earth, seeking whom he
may devour. Like a lion, he's seeking out who's easy.
They're seeking out the isolated Christian. They're seeking out the
Christian that does not have community. They don't have people
(09:53):
around them holding them accountable. They don't have maybe discipleship,
they don't have a church. They're watching church at home.
They're always by themselves. They're not being edified in community.
And we know that a commandment in the Bible is
to not forsake the assembly of the Saints, because that's
for our edification. Right. He is seeking baby Christians, lions,
(10:16):
They seek calves, the ones that have been left behind
by their moms, or their moms aren't paying attention. The
devil's going after baby Christians who probably don't really know
the scripture. They can't bring scripture to mind to seek
a way of escaping temptation. They probably haven't gone through
things to really strengthen their walk with the Lord. There's
(10:36):
still baby Christians. He goes after the week, the Christians
who are constantly stumbling on the same things. So if
your strong cold in life has been smoking weed, the
devil sees it. So as soon as you are stumbling
with that, and you have that friend that you just
won't let go of, and the Lord has been told
you cut off that friend because they always smoking, and
(10:56):
you know that that's your weakness, and you have not
cut off that friend. So every time that friend comes
around and they start rolling up right, and you sit
in there and you have been months clean, you ain't
smoked in months, but this friend comes around, and now
all of a sudden, you wanna puffet once. You are
giving the devil a foothold. Right, So he goes after
(11:16):
the weak Christians, just like a lion goes after easy prey.
And when you read James one, p. Fourteen, it says,
but each one is tempted when he is drawn away
by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is
full grown, brings forth death. So the Word is telling us, right,
(11:38):
it's not the devil lurking around every corner. He's not
hiding behind the door dangling something in front of you.
What actually happens is we have our own selfish desires.
All of us have sin within us, regardless from birth, right,
So we have our own desires. But the desire is
not necessarily the sin. It's when we allow things to
(11:59):
come into our life that tempt us. And the devil
is constantly seeing these repeated patterns in our lives, right
like I talked about with weed smoking. You still have
not cut off that friend who smokes every time they're
around you. If you are struggling with lust and you're
struggling with sex, maybe as a Christian, and you're trying
to abstain because you're not married, but you have not
(12:20):
cut off that X that you used to have sex with.
And that's a tie for you that you have not
You still have their number. You haven't blocked them because
oh what if an emergency happens? Girl, That man ain't
calling you in case of an emergency. He ain't calling
you with his tire ruptures. He got triple A. Stop it,
(12:41):
stop it. You know, we're so afraid to cut off
these ties because you know, sometimes we're afraid that the
Lord won't replace some quick enough. These are people that
we have emotionally leaned on. But you know, at some
point we got to grow up and we have to
mature beyond these selfish desires. Like I said, the desires
(13:02):
in themselves are not the sin. It's what happens when
you don't cut the desires off and you allow these
things to keep coming into your life. So I know,
for me, one thing that I have really committed myself
to is not drinking for several reasons. I have a
whole episode on it. But for me, it's like drinking. Right.
Both sides of my family, my mom's side and my
(13:25):
dad's side, love to drink. It is guaranteed that at
every opportunity when they get together, there is It's not
just beer and wine, y'all, is full blown liquor at
every event. It don't matter, right, And it's very easy
(13:46):
for me to be like, one beer won't hurt, and
will one beer hurt? No? Right, I most likely am
not gonna get drunk off one beer, especially at Thanksgiving
when I'm eating at the same time. But just knowing
how if I say something publicly, If I say I'm
not going to drink, and then my family does see
(14:06):
me drinking a beer, They're not going to say anything
to me, probably, but it is a it's a wrench
in my testimony. You know, I recently drank wine at
a restaurant and I didn't even finish the whole glass
of wine, and I kind of felt convicted about it.
There wasn't really people around like that, but just the
public drinking in itself. I was like, hmm, this isn't
(14:30):
my testimony, you know, Like, this isn't what I said
I was going to do. Did I get drunk, Absolutely not.
I was nowhere near drunk from a few SIPs of wine.
But it was still something about it that I was like,
this isn't for me, Like it's just not for me,
Like sitting around drinking wine is just not for me anymore.
And a lot of times the enemy knows when to
(14:51):
attack when we are comfortable, when we're around friends and
family and the music is playing and people are laughing
in our defense down a little bit more, we are
not as aware as we would be if we were alone,
you know. And it's almost like not necessarily a peer
pressure I you know, if you have family that really
(15:13):
loves you and respects you, it's not like they're going
to peer pressure you. But it's almost the peer pressure
that we put on ourselves, like, oh, everyone else is drinking,
I won't get drunk, huh. You know. Sometimes that's how
I am where I'm like, no one's gonna care if
I have a beer, and nobody will. But it's not
about other people caring. It's about what trips me up.
(15:36):
Am I giving the devil a foothold by having one beer.
Am I doing something that's going to risk my testimony
by having one glass of wine? That's what it's really about.
It's about not doing anything that's going to draw me
into the temptation. Because the devil isn't sitting in my
house with his watch out just waiting for me to
(15:59):
have a glass of wine. You know, he comes around
when he sees that I'm looking at the wine. He
comes around when he sees that I've had that beer.
And now that one beer might turn into two. Then
it might turn into oh, I gonna have a glass
of wine. Then it might turn into a margarita, and
then might turn into shots, and then it might turn
into me thinking that going to a lounge is okay.
(16:20):
It starts off small, y'all, But that's exactly what a
foothold is. It's not always this big, blatant thing in
your life. It does start off small. And I know,
around the holidays, like I said, our defenses are down.
We're comfortable, we're happy, we're with family. We think that
the small things don't really matter, but they do, y'all,
(16:43):
They really do. And I would even argue that when
you're around family, you should be a little bit more
strict with these things that might give the devil a
foothold in your life, because you want to give a
good example to them. Sometimes when we're by ourselves, things
don't really matter as much because because we know ourselves,
you know what I mean. Even then, it shouldn't when
(17:03):
you're alone, you shouldn't give those things a foothold in
your life, but especially when people are observing you. Hebrews
twelve to one says, therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us. So if we know that
(17:25):
there are things that are just easily going to trip
us up, don't even do it. Sis, don't reach for
the wine bottle, don't walk to the store with your
cousin that's going to be rolling up and puff puffing
in the car. You know, just don't do it. And
the Word is telling us, because we have these witnesses
around us, let's not give the devil a foothold. Let's
(17:48):
not be a bad example to our families. Let's just
be very conscious, especially around the holidays, to our actions
and how they're going to affect how we present Christ
to people, because that's what it's all about. You know.
We did a little miniseries that ended last week when
we were talking about John four and the Woman at
(18:09):
the Well, and we ended talking about evangelism, and evangelism
doesn't always have to look like you opening up a
Bible and reciting versus. Sometimes your evangelistic approach, especially with
friends and family, is just your lifestyle. It's just them
seeing that you are not going to do what they do.
Sometimes that is all it takes. Loving people and living
(18:33):
differently is sometimes the biggest testimony and the biggest witness
to the Lord living in our lives. And sometimes that's
all our friends and family needs to see. Now that
we have a greater understanding actually of how we have
to take accountability to how we tempt the devil to
come into our lives, right about how we give him
(18:53):
the platform, we give him the strongholds in our lives
to trip us up. Now that we understand that, I
want to give y'all some good new surrounding that. Because
he is not omnipresent, because he is not omniscient, right,
and he has to walk and seek and see who's
the weak and the isolated and the divided, because that's
his tactic, and he is limited in that way. That
(19:15):
is good news because we serve a Lord, a God
who is omniscient, who is omnipresent, who is sovereign, who
has his hand in all things at all times. Right,
he does not force us. But one thing that the
Word tells us is even if we do reach the
level beyond our desires, and now we are being tempted
(19:36):
by the devil, the Lord always gives us a way
of escape out of that temptation. First Corinthians ten thirteen says,
no temptation has overtaken you, accept such as is common
to man. But God is faithful who will not allow
you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But
with the temptation will also make the way of escape
that you may be able to bear it. So that's
(19:58):
good news, right, Like we talked about how the devil
actually works, how we give the devil of footholds the
things that we should not be doing, staying vigilant during
the holidays. But the Lord is over it all. He
is in control over it all, and with every temptation
that we endure in life, he always gives us a
way of escape out of it. Isn't that amazing? Isn't
(20:22):
that amazing to know that there's always a lifeline, there's
always a life boat, there's always a raft, there's always
a way of escape for you. You know. Another limitation
of the enemy is that he never creates anything new. Y'all.
You are not being tempted in any new way, in
any super creative way. It's always based on you in
(20:45):
your life. So it allows you to take accountability and say,
what am I doing that I am giving the devil
a foothold, and then you can just cut it out.
The Bible is telling us that we are never tempted
beyond what we are able to bear, and he is
giving you that very specific and tailored way of escape
out of that temptation. That's good news for us. But
(21:09):
to know that he is omniscient when the enemy is not,
to know that he is omni present when the enemy
is not, to know that he's in control of it
all when the enemy is not, and to know that
he is faithful when we are being tempted and always
gives us a way out. It's the assurance that we need.
(21:29):
It's the assurance that you can go into this holiday
season being a good example to your friends and your family.
I definitely need that word. I have my little sister
flying in to meet our dad's oude of the family.
If you guys don't know, I just met my dad's
extended side of the family just three years ago through
an ancestry DNA test and my great grandmother found me
(21:51):
on there. So I'm the only one of my father's
kids that have met his family, like his aunt's, his uncle,
his grand parents. You know, I'm the oldest. I'm the
only one that has met them. So now I want
all my other siblings to come in and meet them,
because our great grandparents at this point, they're in their
nineties and I want my family or my siblings to
(22:12):
meet them while they still have the chance to, you know.
And so one of my little sisters, I'm flying her in.
She's getting in actually, you know today actually, and yeah,
she's gonna have the chance to spend Thanksgiving with me,
and I have not seen her in years. She's gonna
have the chance to meet our father's side of the family.
(22:32):
I know that they're gonna be so excited to meet her.
So you know, I just take these opportunities. As I'm
meeting more family and I'm putting myself in position to
have my siblings come out, and you know, like stuff
like that, I am just taking the opportunity. And I'm
just praying, like, God, give me opportunity to live for
you and to be a noticeable difference to even talk
(22:55):
about you. Let you be brought up in conversation, Let
me start the conversation. Let me be courageous and bold.
Let me be that one family member, that one sibling,
the leader in my family that is going to live
differently and be a good example to my siblings. So
I'm really excited for that. So I just want to,
(23:15):
you know, encourage you all. Yes, there's going to be temptation,
but you get to decide if you get the devil
a foothold. You get to decide that right. And every
single time that we are tempted, God is right there.
He is right there. He is living inside of you,
He is walking next to you. He is giving you
(23:37):
a way of escape out of temptation. You have someone
that is advocating for you at all times. So you
can step into this season when you're going to see
your family, when you're going to see your friends, when
you're gonna be around people who probably aren't living the
same way that you are striving to live for, you
can do it boldly and confidently, knowing that the Lord
(23:58):
is there with you. And if you don't have that confidence,
you don't have the Holy Spirit living within you. Maybe
you have not given your life to the Lord yet
(24:19):
and you're still going through cycles of temptation and failure,
and you're just not living a life that is that
has been redeemed. You're not living a life that has
been created new. Let's just say that you don't have
that assurance. You can. You can have assurance of exactly
where you're gonna go when you die. You can have
assurance of who you live for while you're on earth,
(24:41):
and you can live a life that is above the
cycles of temptation, the cycles of falling, the cycles of stumbling.
You can find a way to live above that by
just accepting the Lord into your life and asking him
to come into your life, asking him to save you
from your sin, acknowledging that you sin, acknowledging that you
(25:02):
need him and that you want to live for him
and turn away from those cycles that we were talking
about before. You can have assurance of that today. You
don't have to keep questioning what's next, what you should
be doing with your life. Is there a life after death? Yes,
there is, and you are gonna live it somewhere. You're
either gonna live it with him or live without him,
(25:23):
and trust and believe you want to live it with him.
Romans ten nine says, if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart
that God has raised him from the dead, you will
be saved. And that's what it is. Salvation is a gift.
You did not earn it. The Lord loved you and
he died for you so that you can live with
him for eternity. You can have assurance of where you
(25:46):
are going when you pass away, because this life that
you are living on earth is not forever, but you
will spend forever somewhere, and you can have assurance of
where you are gonna spend that forever. I want us
to all live conquered, live, redeemed lives, new creation lives,
and definitely just be leaders in our families because, like
(26:08):
I said, sometimes we're the only saved person in the
family and it's hard, and I just want us to
get used to being the lights in the room and
exercise that this holiday season, all right, I hope that
you all have an amazing Thanksgiving. Once again, If you
guys want to be a part of the twenty twenty
six Christian Girls Trip, the link will be in the
(26:29):
description box. Make sure that you subscribe to the newsletter.
Make sure that you are on the Instagram and TikTok
so that you can get the link for the deposit
that will be coming up very soon for the trip
payment plans. All that good stuff will be available if
you guys want to come, and I will see you
in South Afrigot this summer. Happy Thanksgiving. I love you all.
(26:51):
I would talk to you later. Bye.
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