If we ever took the time to really contemplate trials of this life, it would be obvious that God doesn't remove the temptation out of our path in life, he does, however, "with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (I Cor. 10:13) Yet, just providing this way isn't the end of the matter, we have a responsibility to take that way. It is all in God's divine plan for the free will of man that we must "choose you this day whom ye will serve." (Josh. 24:15) There is story after story in the Holy Bible to show us the importance of accepting the deliverance God has given us. Gideon, for example, was delivered long before he laid the fleece. He was given the victory long before he chose the 300, or even before he heard the enemy confess their fear. Yet, the battle was not over until Gideon both believed and accepted the victory God had provided.
Jesus Christ's first message contained this fundamental element of Christianity: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives . . ." There comes a point in every trial that we must accept that we are able to have the victory over it; that we can be delivered from the situation that is trying to keep us in bondage. Jesus continued this message of available deliverance when he said the profound statement: "Remember Lot's wife." (Luke 17:32) Lot's wife was in the palm of deliverance. She was out of the place of evil, she was literally placed in the land of safety. Yet, she refused the way of escape; "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain . . ." (Gen. 19:5) By looking back she chose the place of destruction over the life God had placed before her.
So what must we do to guard against this syndrom of not accepting deliverance when it is offered to us? We must stop giving place to the will of the flesh. Paul instructed: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5:16-17) It is not a simple matter to deny ourselves of the desires of sinful flesh, but it is something that must be accomplished in order to live the victorious life that Christ has so wondrously offered by the shedding of his own blood. After all, that is the purpose of the cross we bear daily. Jesus said plainly that "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23) This is the kingship that we are offered, this is the oneness that God declared we could share in Christ Jesus. This is the baptism that we are baptized in . . . into his death. Let us therefore forget "those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus . . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Phil. 3:13-14, Heb. 12:1-2) |
