The Dangling Carrot

Do you find it difficult to concentrate when something exciting is coming your way? I sure do. Maybe it's a vacation you're looking forward to. For me it might be retirement. Maybe for you it's wanting your spouse to be something they're not. What should we do? The carrot is right there!

That person or thing is dangling out there in front of us and we can't wait to get to it. Distractions and temptations come at us every day. Television advertising, a restaurant menu, a shopping trip. "Dangling carrots" are everywhere.

Do YOU have a carrot in your life? What is it? I've seen people whose "carrot" is money. They never have enough. They never get the carrot. For some people it's fame. Fame is fleeting. No carrot their either.

Here's a question. Who do you think is holding that string?

The carrot, dangling at the end of a stick, is often used to entice a stubborn mule to do something it really doesn't want to do. In our case, perhaps it's an adulterous relationship. "She's nicer and more beautiful than our current spouse." Or maybe it's alcohol. "Just one more drink to deaden the pain."

It never works. In the end, it is never as fulfilling as doing what is right. Satan loves to distract us and tempt us to do something we shouldn't be doing by offering us something we really want.

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. ³ Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
 
⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” - Matthew 4:1-4

Jesus refused to stray from His obedience to God, even though He was really hungry and wanted to eat bread. Then why should we allow ourselves to stray? To be tempted by something we want that will lead us someplace we really shouldn't be going? Because we are really selfish and we REALLY want that carrot.

"9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." - 1 Timothy 6:9

"25 Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. 26 Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng." - Proverbs 7:25-26

Let us not be distracted by the things we "want" in life. May we follow the only thing we need - Jesus Christ, our Lord.


Temptation Eyes - Grass Roots