June 12
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Continuing from where we left off yesterday, we can sum up with this statement: we must successfully flee in our minds, perhaps many times over, before we successfully flee in our actions. We have to be mentally prepared for fleeing. We have to know with certainty what we will do if and when we are tempted. It is something we practice and rehearse in our minds before we do it for real. It is prior preparation that brings success. Joseph didn’t just stumble into victory here by accident. The reason we are talking about him now is not due to a fluke or a random response he just happened to think of at the time.
Joseph determined what his response was going to be to Potiphar’s wife ahead of time and carried out his plan. He rehearsed it in his mind, I believe, to the point where the action itself was natural, one that required little thinking, almost a reflex if you will. So also this is how we need to be thinking about the temptations that beset us. We all know what they are. Once we purpose that we will refuse these temptations and cry out to the Lord to enable us to obey God no matter what the cost, we can plan our response in our minds ahead of time. We can map out our escape route. We can decide where we will go and what we will do, how we respond and what we will say.
Consider the well known verse quoted above, promising that no temptation will overtake us that is not common to man and that God will provide the way of escape that we may be able to endure, or overcome it and be victorious, when we are tempted. We can be confident that every time we are tempted that there is a way out, there is a place to flee and a way to overcome. Do you look for this way of escape when you are tempted? Do you know where it is? Do you know what it looks like for the temptations you face? Do you know the optimal time to take advantage of the way of escape, when the escape is easiest and most straightforward?
Speaking from my own experience, every time I have been tempted, and every time I have sinned, the way of escape was always there. Often, the way of escape was accompanied by the Holy Spirit urging me to not proceed and say or do the thing I was tempted to do. And I am ashamed to report that many times I quenched the Spirit and sinned anyway.
Tomorrow I’d like to explore a bit more why we don’t take the way of escape when God so generously and continuously makes it available to us.