April 23
“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)
Let’s analyze our thoughts and sin patterns using the example of becoming proud in heart. Becoming proud in heart is a good sin to analyze because I believe it is a root of many other sins.
We can begin by asking ourselves a series of questions along the lines of the following. When we become proud in heart, were we first feeling full of ourselves or overconfident for some reason? Sometimes we stumble in sin because we have a feeling of superiority or invulnerability. Did we experience some blessing or success? Sometimes we sin on the heels of God’s blessings and things going well in our lives. “Because God is blessing me,” I may reason wrongly, “I have stored up a “cushion” of favor or leniency, and He won’t mind if I sin a little, just this one time of course.” We may not think this overtly, but examine your heart and see if this kind of deception might be part of your rationale (or lack thereof) when you sin.
The reality may be that when we sin shortly after He gives us His blessings that God will have less leniency with us because He has blessed us, not more. What about all the people who are persecuted and aren’t experiencing God’s blessing, and yet they don’t sin? Who do you suppose glorifies God more? When you compare yourself and your comfortable situation to those believers undergoing trials and persecutions, and you think about the times you sin in your comfort and ease and they don’t sin in their discomfort and trials, it clearly reveals our sins of pride and presumption, sins even more detestable and unjustifiable and more worthy of God’s judgment, in my opinion.
How could we, who are experiencing God’s blessings, sin more than those who aren’t experiencing God’s blessings? Seems shocking that we would do such a thing, yet I think we do it all the time. Think about whether you are more inclined to obey and fear God after receiving answered prayer and blessings from Him, or whether you are more inclined to disobey and sin. Now think about whether you are more inclined to obey and fear God after receiving bad news or a loss or setback or trial of some kind. For me, if I am honest with myself, I think I have sinned many times after receiving God’s blessings and success, because of my tendency to become proud in heart and self-reliant, and I seek the Lord more humbly and earnestly after a fall or a loss. I am not too unlike the Israelites as described in Psalms 78 and 107. How about you?
This is an important thing to keep in mind, that there are many others experiencing the same temptations we are, and yet without sin. How are they able to resist and we don’t seem to be able to or want to? We will continue to explore this thought tomorrow.