Feeling Guilty Because of Temptation
There are three kinds of temptation:
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
- 1 John 2:16 (KJV)
Temptation leads to sin, so naturally we try to avoid that.
What helped me enormously is to realize that temptation comes in two stages:
1. initial temptation
2. dwelling on the temptation
The initial temptation is out of your control. It's just something your eyes show you. We can't really control that. But we can control how long we dwell on that temptation.
So now, rather than feeling guilty because of the initial temptation, we can now become stronger by dwelling less and less in the temptation itself. It's like strengthening a muscle.
It has made a huge difference in the way I see temptation.