Blessed Friday to y’all. Another gorgeous day here. Love this town.
I’ve been thinking about this verse:
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
I have found this to be true. Unfortunately, I’m ashamed to admit that too often not only do I not take the way of escape, I choose not to even ask God what that way might be. Worse, sometimes I know, but I just don’t feel like fighting to do the right thing. I pretend I don’t see it. Yeah, isn’t that what two-year-olds do? If I cover my eyes, I can’t see you, so surely you can’t see me. This mentality of me wanting what I want when I want it is so foolish. Downright stupid. But we mortals are masters at justification. Deep down, or maybe not even so deep down, I always know when I’m justifying.
I’ve always heard that it’s my sin (yes, yours, too) but my sin that nailed Christ to that cross. That is so sobering that most the time, I can scarcely comprehend this, though it’s a good thing to keep in mind. And when I have these moments where I “get it,” I think why would I ever choose to sin again. Ever. I love God. Don’t want to hurt Him. Still I do.
Why?
Really pretty simple. That propensity to sin is a part of me. I’m selfish. I think of myself first. And deep down I want the world to revolve around me. God knows this. That’s why He sent Jesus to rescue us. We do need to be rescued, you know? Left to our own devices, we can get ourselves in lots of trouble. No, you might not end up in jail or on 60 Minutes shielding your face, saying, “No comment,” but you know deep down, things aren’t as fine and dandy as they might appear sometimes.
Thanks be to God that He knows this about all of us. All He’s ever wanted from me, what He continues to want from all of us, is just to be honest with Him. I’ve found it extremely painful to confess to God that “My thinking stinks right now, I’m being so short sighted, I know that if I do ‘this thing,’ I’ll be talking to you about it later, telling you I regret it and don’t want to do this. But right now, I’m lying if I say I don’t’ want to, and I’m really lying if I don’t admit to you that at this very moment while I’m agreeing with you that this isn’t the best choice, I am plotting how I can do it and there not be any consequences.”
I’ve discovered something about God. He gets us. He gets why we do the stupid things we do. He gets what we perceive the pay off to be. Good grief. He made us. Do you not think He knows what makes us tick? Still with the devil breathing down our necks, sometimes it’s easy to forget that God is really on our side. All He wants is to give us joy and to give it to us abundantly, on this side of heaven. I don’t think there’s been a day in 35 years being a Christian that I’ve ever really forgotten that. It’s just that sometimes my desire to sin trumps my desire to obey. The Apostle Paul understood this. Read Romans 7. Actually the whole book of Romans is terrific.
Anyway, sometimes the honesty and the prayer is enough to keep me on solid ground, and avoid the pitfall I’m finding myself on any given day. Sometimes, I give in. Goal is to allow God to transform my mind daily so I find myself giving in to temptation less and less. We’ll never stop being tempted, though. And it ain’t God doing the tempting, just in case you’re wondering. He tempts no one. He’s the one who tries to guide us out of the temptation.
I do know the remedy for all of this. And it’s not to repeat to myself 50 times I will not do this or think this or respond in the flesh in respect to whatever battle rages in my mind at this particular moment. That won’t work. The more we tell ourselves we can’t have something, the more we want it. Good grief, some things I don’t even want until someone says I can’t have it. You know, the old “Wet paint, don’t touch” syndrome. It wouldn’t have occurred to us to touch the fence but now that we’re told not to touch, we just gotta touch it to see if it’s really wet!
I love that God truly has a perfect perspective on all this. Sin is heavy and it has to be reckoned with. On the other hand, sometimes He just says to me, Gayle, now why on earth did you do that? (Of course, He already knows). Was it worth it? Well, it seemed like it was at the time, Lord, I say. And God says, I keep trying to tell you, Gayle, that’s the point. Sin always feels worth it at the moment. Why would it be called a temptation if it weren’t attractive? That’s a good question.
Need to keep washing my mind daily with God’s Word. Mediate on those passages that speak to my areas of weakness. That does work. Thirty five years being a Christian, I’m pleased to say I’ve had a lot of victories over sin. But I’ve discovered two things. My sins don’t seem to change. (Stick a bag of almonds in front of me today and I’ll eat the whole thing even after I’m stuffed). And just because I had victory over a sin yesterday doesn’t mean I’ve now got it “handled” and can relax. Some things ya just have to stay on top of.
Like weeding. Have you noticed? You can pull every weed in your garden, even get ‘em by the roots. Still a hard rain comes and then maybe some sunshine or maybe not, and poof, new weeds have sprouted up. Hmm. Suddenly I got some other thoughts on all this but this entry is long enough. I may save them for another day.
Blessings all and have a great weekend.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)