In at least one way, every leader is Christlike. Jesus was tempted, and so are we. While he was famously confronted directly and openly by Satan, our temptations usually appear a bit more subtly but just as strongly. We are tempted by money, sex, and power … and oh-so-many other things: fear and despondency and pride and anger and envy and gluttony and selfish ambition, just to name a few.

Temptation itself is not a bad thing. In fact, you remember the classic distinction between virtue and innocence? Virtue, unlike innocence, has successfully passed a point of temptation. So without temptation, there can be no virtue.

So how do we successfully pass the many points of temptation we will face every day? Here are nine of the best tools that we’ve put together to help you in your ongoing pursuit of virtue, which, much like one of those gritty Spartan Races, will be contested with obstacles at every turn.

The Sin Tamer, by John Ortberg. Do we ever get to stop fighting against the ...