Simply Run

Just as surely as we count the cost to follow Christ, we ought to count the cost of what it is to sin. The warnings we find in Scripture, along with an intense love for God, will see you through the rough waters of temptation. No, you will never be temptation-proof; you will never outgrow temptation.

But we must always remember the wonderful promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13, a verse every believer ought to commit to memory: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Allow me to loosely paraphrase: God won’t give you more than you can handle. There is always a way out. So take it. Don’t be foolish.

If you are in the way of temptation right now, stop. Repent. Hang a U-turn. And if you have already given into temptation and are wondering whether there is any hope for you, whether God will ever forgive you, and whether He would give you a second chance, the answer is a resounding yes. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So there is forgiveness.

When we are tempted, the best thing we can do is to simply run, to literally get out of the situation that perhaps we have put ourselves in. We should flee temptation and never leave a forwarding address.