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"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV)
My daughter’s dog Pepper, is an escape artist. If there is a way to get outside of the yard, she will discover it, something which she did recently. Twice in two days she has escaped the fence. I was charged with the task of finding out just where her secret exit was located.
My granddaughters ran around our fenced ½ acre searching diligently for any holes under the wire. They speculated about her leaping over the fence, but I told them to just walk around the inside of the fence and to watch Pepper as she too walked and ran around the perimeter. I told them if they simply watched her, that she herself, would inadvertently reveal her secret to us.
Sure enough, it didn’t take Pepper long to slow down at a certain point in the fence, quickly and intently look at a specific spot then move along to catch up with us. As we circled the yard again, I stopped at the main gate, the place that Pepper had been slowing down and checking out. Two rectangular openings had been cut in the fencing that stretched across each side of the gate, so that a person could reach through either side to unhook the chains that fastened the gates closed. Those cut out rectangles were just big enough for a dog of Pepper's size to squeeze through if she stood on her hind legs and pulled herself up through them. Mystery solved.
As I laughed about how clever she had been in discovering the way out, I was reminded of todays’ scripture. Temptations are common to all of us. Depending upon our individual innate weaknesses however, some are easier to turn from than others, it’s those others though that can bring about much grief, even the downfall of our reputations, businesses, marriages or health if we succumb to them.
Therefore, let us learn to be clever escape artists, much like Pepper, that we may not succumb to such temptations. Let us be diligent in seeking the way of escape from them, that God promises to faithfully provide, by humbling ourselves in prayer, admitting our weaknesses and asking Him to strengthen us to not only want to resist the temptation, but also to give us eyes to see the way of escape, as well as the will to accept and make use of it and thereby gain victory over any and all temptations this world may set before us.
Prayer: Father God, thank you that we can count on you to provide everything we need to have victory over the temptations that this world lays before us. In Christ’s name. Amen.
Lynne Phipps
Tawatinaw, Alberta, Canada
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