Have you seen the latest new incredible burger being offered by the nearby fast food joint? It looks scrumptious! In the TV ads, the burger looks great — a perfect bun, crisp vegetables, and a delicious looking new fangled sauce. Everyone in the ad that's eating one is smiling and laughing. Their kids are behaving perfectly as they sit at the table and enjoy this new feast with four generations of family. One person has a bit of sauce in the corner of her mouth and she slowly and enticingly licks the sauce off and says, "Yum!" Everyone at the table laughs as they eat their next bite. Then the ad claims it's even low carb!

So you run down to the fast food joint nearest you with your family. You order yourself one of these new beautiful, good-for-you, must-have burgers. Except your kids are cranky and want something different to eat. Your burger comes out half-smushed. Your new fangled sauce looks a lot more like wallpaper paste than it does the sauce in the commercial. Your burger tastes more like cardboard than anything else you've ever eaten. Then you notice the carb content and realize that this burger does not fit the induction phase. In fact, one little crouton more and you're over the daily carb limit! Bummer. You've been had by the ad. You've been deceived. You've been slicked! "But at least it was quick and convenient," you tell yourself even though no one licked off the special sauce off the corner of his or her mouth and your kids ate the deep-fried, nuke-warmed, high-carb, high-fat, chicken grease-ball fingerlings and fries.

There are two sides to temptation: our side and Satan's side. James puts it this way: "Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death. So don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters." (James 1:14-16)

Clearly we must confront our personal weaknesses and vulnerabilities if we are to resist temptation. Dealing with our own desires is a huge challenge. However, temptation is not just about us and our own weaknesses. We are in a battle with a real adversary seeking to do us harm and pull us away from the life of God. (1 Peter 5:8) In his scheming, (2 Corinthians 2:11) the evil one tries to deceive us with his slick presentation and entice us to sin. (Hebrews 3:13) He waits for an opportune time to plan these slick attacks. (Luke 4:13)

This enemy wants us had by his ad.
We must recognize that we have an enemy that is trying to make sure we are "misled" about temptation. This enemy wants us to be "had by his ad" — in other words, "slicked" by the allurements of the temptation. He doesn't want us to see the lie behind his presentation and the true costs associated with buying into his deceptions.

Just as we have learned that the food in the picture looks a whole lot better than the real food on the plate in fast food ads, we also need to realize that sin is always served up to us as a more pleasing, lower-cost, less-downside shortcut to a good thing. Let's not be deceived! We are not unaware of Satan's schemes. Far too often we have seen the real and tragic costs to friends and their families when someone buys what the evil one is selling. Let's trust in God's power and his way of escape from the trap being set for us and those we love. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Let's refuse to be slicked!