Temptation

 Does Temptation's pull increase with each consecutive failure to hold it at bay, or does it increase more with each consecutive instance at which it is held at bay? 

Because we have experienced personally no other reality than the former, in which temptation has been given into, we might say that temptation grows - as we have experienced the indulgence of sin and hear its beckoning call. But this is all we have ever known. We have not known the force temptation brings to bear as it is continually discarded in favor of obedience to God. 

Jesus is the only example we can look to in order to shed light on the alternate. 

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens - Jesus the Son of God - let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." Hebrews 4: 14-16

He was tempted in every way we are and yet remained obedient and without sin. C.S Lewis Explains the contrast quite clearly between the strength temptation has on those who have already relented and those remaining firm in obedience. 

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses because he did not give into them. If this were not the case then the text would read that he could empathize. He does not confirm our temptations as an empathic person would, only our weakness; however, he can have compassion on us, and on those ignorant and going astray because he also was subject to weakness.  

The longer we hold temptation at bay the stronger its pull will become, and the more its truth will be made known to us. Vs. 8 in Hebrews 5 says that Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered and that through this he was perfected, becoming the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. 

Continue to walk against the wind.