Temptation Escape

2Th 3:3  But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

The LORD is faithful.

The LORD is TRUSTWORTHY.

The LORD will establish us.

The LORD will keep us from evil.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

God is FAITHFUL.

There is a way to ESCAPE, to keep from sinning blatantly.  The way to escape is placed there so we can BEAR being tempted.

 We will NOT be tempted above that we are able to endure- if we take the way of escape offered to us.

We cannot escape if we do not take that way made for us to escape. We can try all our own methods of escape but they will all fall flat and we will give in to the temptation. The ONLY way to bear being tempted and not succumb to it is through the way of escape that GOD is faithful to make for us. 

trouble comes when we look for our own escape routes shunning the way made for us. We do that all the time, don't we? We have a little voice inside us that convinces us that we should NOT deny ourselves whatever tempting sinful offer is being made to us. That little voice is accompanied by many others- one who tells us that we are too weak to overcome, another telling us we are hopeless, while still another tells us we are only human and what else can we expect.  You know those voices, you have those voices inside you working against God, the voices that would have us keep our eyes, our minds, focused on ourselves at all costs because those voices know that as long as we are looking to ourselves we will not see the way of escape made for us-the way of escape that tells us things like this--

Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

And this--

Joh 8:11  ...Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

And this--

1Jn 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not…

And this--

Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

And this--

1Co 15:34  Awake to righteousness, and sin not…

And this--

Psa 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

The way of escape.  We all know about fire escapes, right? They put them on the outside of buildings generally so people can escape a fire inside the building and not perish.  As a rule people who live in buildings with fire escapes know where they're located- what room they're in, what window they are outside of.  If a fire erupted they'd know where to go, right? What good would that fire escape do if they chose to go to a different room, a different window where there was no fire escape? It wouldn't do them any good at all to try and go somewhere else, try as they might- they could even go to the windows but no magically appearing fire escape will come into view. They'll have condemned themselves by choosing their own path and not the path of the fire escape, right?  Some would call it ludicrous to even imagine trying to go where you know there is no fire escape, and it is, it's totally ludicrous. Yet we all the time try to go where there is no escape from sin rather than go to the way made for us to escape.

What was that last verse-  Thy word have I hid in mine heart -  why was the Word of God hid in the heart?  That I might not sin against God.

The Word of God in our heart.  A way of escape!  How often when temptation comes your way do you look to the Word of God? Seriously?  That first inkling of temptation presents itself and you …. do…what?  First of all, that temptation isn't going to be quiet, remember those little voices that accompany temptation? So what do you do, you're under attack by temptation, do you stay put and listen to the voices of temptation? Have you been suddenly paralyzed? No, your limbs still work. Do you rush to get your Bible all the while humming loudly some Christian song that will hopefully drown out those temptation voices? Where is your focus?

Temptations are REAL and POWERFUL! Those voices won't be drowned out easily! We are fighting a SPIRITUAL battle that is REAL. The sword the enemy may wield could be a bottle of alcohol, or a recreational drug, or a prostitute, or the television tuned to sinful shows, or a chocolate cake and a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, or a fuse of anger ignited and simply ready for you to take over and go with the flow, or it could be a streak of jealousy, of covetousness, you name it the spiritual enemy we are at war with has an entire arsenal of your most powerful temptations at his disposal and he's not afraid to use every single one of them.  We need to recognize the power of the enemy and temptation, not ignore it. We need to recognize it for what it is, a SPIRITUAL POWER poking at us trying to get us to walk HIS path, not GOD'S! If he can poke and prod us into his path we are lost.  God makes a way for us to escape every temptation, we won't be tempted above what we're able to endure, this is a fact! It doesn't say God will take temptation away, that you will never again be tempted, if anything the word of God tells us that we are going to face more temptation the closer we are to God.  Satan doesn't need to tempt those that are comfortably his, he doesn’t need to waste effort on those he has, but he has to expend a lot of effort going after those he doesn't have and the only ones he doesn't have are those whose hearts belong to God, those who have CHOSEN to LOVE GOD.

It's no joke that you'll face your greatest trials and tribulations the closer you come to God.  So many Christians falter and flail about when they are put to the test, their first line of defense is to BLAME God for allowing their trial, their temptation, their tribulation, Satan LOVES that!  That weapon of Satan's is one he has honed to perfection- he whips it out often and whispers it into our minds conveniently so that we do NOT focus on going to God for help but rather blame him for needing help at all.

Temptations are REAL and POWERFUL, I'm saying it again! These are REAL and recognizable things. They aren't things that just pop up out of no where and are something we've never imagined. We've fallen to our temptations so often that we know them, but we fail to recognize our need of an ESCAPE. We'd rather just face temptation when it comes around and hey, sometimes we'll succumb and sometimes we won't, sometimes we're strong other times we're not. Do you see the flaw in that logic? We need to be prepared- we NEED to know where our FIRE - our TEMPTATION escape is!  We need to KNOW that there is a temptation escape and that is the WORD of God hiding in our hearts! That's CHRIST hiding in our hearts! That's HIS WORD TO US! The SWORD of the Spirit of the Word of God!  We have armor, we have an escape, we have weapons, we have everything we could possibly need when we HAVE a REAL, LIVING, BREATHING relationship with our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!  When we TURN to God and look away from ourselves and our own failings, our own weakness and to HIS STRENGTH, that is our HOPE! JESUS !

2Th 3:3  But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

PRAISE GOD! PRAISE OUR LORD! He will establish us and keep us from evil!!!!!!!

All glory to God!