Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Way Out

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but is God faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 
—1 Corinthians 10:13

As believers, we have God's promise that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. But here is the problem: sometimes we unnecessarily put ourselves in the way of temptation. As one person put it, "Lead me not into temptation. I can find it myself." Instead of hearing what God is saying and taking practical steps to stay away from the things that could drag us down, we unnecessarily put ourselves in the path of temptation.

We live in the real world, and all around us are things that can distract us, things that could ultimately entice us. But it is another thing to put ourselves in places where we know we are weak.

The person who has a problem with drinking shouldn't be spending time in a bar. The single guy who is struggling with sexual temptation shouldn't be spending time alone with his girlfriend late at night, in the dark. That is putting oneself unnecessarily in the way of temptation.

We know that God "will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). And sometimes the way of escape is the door.

Case in point: Joseph. Day in and day out, Potiphar's wife was trying to seduce him. Eventually, she cast all subtlety aside and just pulled him down on the bed. So what did Joseph do? He did what any clear-thinking young man would do under the circumstances: he ran like crazy.

God will never give us more than we can handle. There is always a way out. But sometimes we just need to take practical steps to resist temptation. What steps are you taking today?

Copyright © 2010 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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