Battling temptation

God woke me up early this morning from a dream in which I was dealing with a very real temptation, one that I had in fact given in to in the dream.  But instead of beating myself up for it, in the dream I began to battle back against the situation so that it wouldn't happen again.  As I woke, the things that I had done stood out clearly.

• Enlist prayer from others.  In the dream I pulled a dear friend in and asked her to pray over me to combat the temptation.
• Use God's word as a barrier against temptation.  In the dream this was represented by using a physical Bible as barrier, but in Matthew 4 we read how Jesus used Scripture against the temptations posed by the devil.
• Discovered that saying "I shouldn't . . . " was really a way of giving in to the temptation.  A more definitive "I can't . . ." or "I won't .  . . " made a more decisive action.
• Cut off as much contact with the temptation as possible.
• Pray to see the situation (or person) through God's eyes, so that it is reframed from temptation to object of prayer.  In my dream, this was one of the things that changed the situation the most.
• Don't delay.  Once the temptation is apparent, act immediately to defuse it.