My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Patience is a virtue as they say, and indeed it appears that patience is a very important virtue since it is required for us to be perfected. And apparently the way to get it is to have our faith tried via temptation. It would seem that each temptation that approaches us is a battle with a prize. To the victor go the spoils. Each battle won results in strengthening of faith and patience and progression toward perfection; Each battle lost is a backsliding toward faithlessness.
We should never feel guilty when tempted - even the Lord was tempted; instead we have to recognize that it is a temptation and steel ourselves against it. The amount and type of temptations that we experience does not matter, what matters is our reaction to it. Like the Lord, when the temptation arises, we can immediately put it in its place as when He said: Get the behind me Satan. A phrase that He uttered more than once.
In these battles, everything is at stake - literally salvation and eternal life. But should we lose some (and we inevitably will) we should never give up hope. Because it is for this very reason that the Lord suffered, bled and died - beauty for ashes, joy for mourning. But that is never an excuse to give in to temptation; remember the sore trials of the prodigal. He wasted everything and was still accepted of his Father, but if only he had avoided the waste in the first place!
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