"Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry."
I work in and on top of a lot of different buildings. Sometimes when I have an extended job to do at a certain place, the facility director will tell me what I should do, and where I should go incase of a fire. I am instructed where the fire extinguishers are located, and where the exit doors are. Most of the time though, if I am working on a roof, the escape route is the roof hatch.
But what tells me that there is a problem happening inside the building? Obviously if terrorists overtook the building that I was on top of, I probably wouldn't have a clue. But if there was a fire, I would know it by some kind of a siren. This would indicate to me that a problem was happening inside the building and I would need to find my escape route.
Whether I am in a building, or on top of a building; my way of escape is to "flee." I must move. I must find the nearest exit door and flee the danger. I must find the designated place that is safe.
There are many good things to learn from the above text. But the thing that is of interest to me thing morning is the prescription God has given me when temptation comes.
The prescription that I am to do when I am being tempted is to...FLEE. To move, to run away from, to shun, to vanish from the sight of. Joseph was a wonderful example for us to follow. When the temptation came upon him to lay with Potiphar's wife, he bolted and took off out the exit door. He found the nearest escape route.
If the prescription God has given to prevent me from being overtaken by a temptation is to flee. A question comes to my mind, "flee from what?" What IS temptation? I am going to boil down a definition from John Owen in his book, "Of Temptation."
Anything that has a force or power to seduce, to draw the mind and heart of a person from its obedience that God requires of him, into any sin, or any degree of it whatsoever.
It strikes me this morning that a temptation's aim is to draw me away from obedience to God's commands. Do you know God's commands? Do you know what God requires of you? If you do not, it is possible that your entire life has been overtaken and you don't even know it. I am on the roof and the siren is sounding, and I think to myself, "that's a pretty sound, maybe I should sing along."
Love the writings honey,
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