The Escape Route

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First Corinthians 10:13 says, “ There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

     I am afraid of heights.  I have had those times when it required me to go up a ladder, I by the time I got up the ladder, I couldn’t do the job I was sent up there to do as I could not let go of the ladder.  When I am near a drop off or a cliff, I walk as far away from it as I can get.  I always prefer to have both feet on the ground.  This is not true with some people as heights just don’t bother them and they seem to deliberately tempt fate by walking as close to the edge as they can get.  Just the opposite of me.

     There are many times in the lives of believers that we are tempted  to sin, to do something that is contrary to God’s laws.  The above passage goes on to say that we should flee from idolatry.  The Israelites had a problem with idolatry and began to worship other gods that  were worshiped by the previous inhabitants of the land which they were supposed to conquer.  God had given them explicit instructions about this problem and what would occur if they  kept on doing it.  Now, God gave the people plenty of examples of how powerful He was with miracle after miracle, yet, at the first sign of trouble, they had Aaron make a golden calf and were worshiping it when Moses heard the commotion and came down from  Mount Sinai.  Our nature is prone to forget what God is doing and can do and as a result fall into the same problems as did the israelites.  What is so promising about the above passage is that God does give us a way out and perhaps a reminder of who we are as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are also assured that our temptation is no different from any other person as we are all tempted but we can have the opportunity to make a choice to go on with the temptation or to flee from it with the avenue that God has provided. With many people, the thought is, “God isn’t going to do anything anyway and what I am about to do, everybody else does it, so it won’t matter that much.”  Wrong!  You will know that the path you are about to take will throw you over the cliff.  You know it by the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life.  We are all tempted everyday and it is a common thing to have in our lives as we are still growing in the Christian life.  We all need to take the escape that God has promised He will provide.  Praise God today for His working in our lives each and every moment.