Where the Problems Begin

One of the best ways to deal with temptation is to stay away from it when you can. Granted, temptation can hit us anywhere. Temptation can hit us as we’re sitting in church. It isn’t always an immoral, impure thought. It could be a thought of anger, a thought of hatred, a thought of jealousy, or some other thing. Temptation can hit us anytime, anyplace.

But let’s be honest. We know there are places we go that can make us more vulnerable to temptation. If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t drive by Krispy Kreme, because if the sign is lit up, you know you’re going in to get those fresh doughnuts. We know where we are weak. We know where we will fall. We unnecessarily put ourselves in the way of temptation.

The devil is cunning. He has been doing this for a while. He won’t say, “Hey, you happy Christian. Come here. I want to ruin your life. I want to destroy your family. In fact, I don’t want to just destroy your family; I want to destroy your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids who aren’t even born yet. I’m going to mess you up so bad that it will be passed on from generation to generation. What do you think?”

Who is going to respond to that? No, instead the devil will say, “I know you would never do this stuff. I know you would never be unfaithful to your spouse. I know you would never lie or steal. But just this once, try it out. Just take a little taste. Just try it on once. Take a test drive. Just take this thought out for a spin.”

That is where the problems begin. It starts with a little thing that becomes a bigger thing.