What happens when we fight a tempation?

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BigRon

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Imagine you are tempted into a grave sin and you found yourself nearly but fought it, didn’t sin and prayed. Are we weaker because we came close or does God give us grace because we fought it or does the demonic flee and not return?
 
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You fought a temptation and didn’t give in. That makes you stronger than you were before. As for if you obtain grace, I’m in no position to say. But as Fr. Ripperger says
Heaven likes a good battle. When you go through spiritual warfare you have all of the angels and saints cheering you on, encouraging you to do the right thing and not sin.
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I’m paraphrasing him, but the gist is there.
 
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This happens to me sometimes. I try to calm myself, stop in the moment and pray for God´s help. I´m definitely strengthened when I fight a temptation (with God´s help) because it makes me less likely to fall next time I encounter it.
 
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BigRon said:
Imagine you are tempted into a grave sin and you found yourself nearly but fought it, didn’t sin and prayed. Are we weaker because we came close or does God give us grace because we fought it or does the demonic flee and not return?
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Those with sanctifying grace can overcome through cooperation with it.

The dogma of faith (Council of Orange and Council of Trent) is:
Can. 18. If anyone shall say that the commandments of God are even for a man who is justified and confirmed in grace impossible to observe: let him be anathema.
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Exercising our will over our desires/temptations make us stronger.
 
When I go out for a run, I am tired at the end of it. Soon afterwards I can run further and faster.

When I go to the gym I am sore and weak at the end of it. Soon afterwards I can lift greater weights.

When I spend hours drawing I am worn out. The next time I draw I’m even better.

When I study with intense concentration, I get tired and distractable. I’ll do even better on the test.

When I engage someone in debate I walk away tired, but by the next day I’m even more prepared.

This is the way life works. We are challenged, we grow weary, we come back stronger. That’s all around us in almost everything we do. It is ever the same with temptation.

And note what that says about God’s grace. Yes, He helps us fight, but more importantly He gives us the chance to rest so we can come back stronger. The devil, for all his faults, is still stronger than us. Satan could likely tempt everyone who has ever lived for every second of their lives and not break a sweat. That doesn’t happen because God pushes him back so we have the chance to rest, grow, and learn.
 
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It’s a struggle; that’s the point. Because otherwise we’d be perfect already-and while we might like to assume that we already are-we aren’t. 😀 That’s why we need Jesus, not only to forgive sin but to help us overcome it. It’s a big deal to say “no” to something that can seem so desirable-and even right at the time- and yet we somehow know is wrong.
 
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Stop for a second. Look very carefully at why you are thinking what you are thinking right now. In my entire post there was one statement about the devil’s strength. That’s the statement you latched onto. Examine why.

As you say, he’s been active all day. I think he was just active again.
 
He is always active. I can sit in a cold bath (I don’t enjoy that) praying and making the sign of the cross with the cold water but the temptation remains.

The more I pray and fast and fight temptation the stronger his assaults get and then I fall, ad nauseum.
 
That’s a very familiar feeling to me so I can tell you first hand, that’s the devil’s propaganda. You aren’t losing constantly, he just only wants you to look at the times you do.

Also, what are you praying for? I don’t mean the details of the sin, I mean are you praying for relief or for change? That’s not a trick question, they both are good. We just usually get caught up in praying for one or the other when we need to ask for both.
 
I’ve been to confession three times this year already, four times in December. The last ten weeks I have been to confession more times than the previous ten months. I am falling all the time and getting weaker. I have prayed and fasted so much the last few months but life gets worse so where do I go from here?
 
You’re going to confession and repenting your sins more often and you think that means the devil is making you weaker? No, he’s fighting harder because he’s losing his grip. You’re not getting weaker, he is.
 
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Inquiry said:
You’re going to confession and repenting your sins more often and you think that means the devil is making you weaker?
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Yes because if I was getting stronger I wouldn’t have had to go so many times.
 
More propaganda on his part. Getting you into the confessional is not a victory for him.
 
The only fall that actually matters is the one you don’t get up from.
 
Think about it this way @BigRon

The devil is harassing you more often because he sees you as a threat much like how the devil harasses monks and priests more than he does the laity.
 
A vicious cycle that never comes to an end? It’s not an incentive to try to grow in holiness if you know the devil will attack you even harder.
 
BigRon said:
Imagine you are tempted into a grave sin and you found yourself nearly but fought it, didn’t sin and prayed. Are we weaker because we came close or does God give us grace because we fought it or does the demonic flee and not return?
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Psychologically, every time we resist doing or not doing something, we become a tiny bit better at resisting it the next time as well.

Sometimes a person finds themselves tempted by certain sins worse than before. Usually this can be explained in three ways:
  1. Your conscious has become more sensitive, which is a good thing, But since you are more sensitive to sin, you are going to start noticing it more often than what a coarser and rougher version of you would have noticed. This is assuming you don’t have scruples.
  2. A temporary surge in temptation often happens when a person is breaking away from a habit or dependency or addiction. It starts off easy, and then it becomes dramatically more difficult, and then it becomes gradually easier.
  3. Life circumstances can make a temptation much worse, such as if a person becomes ill, or they lose a full night’s sleep, or something bad happens that makes the person weaker.
 
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