Imagine for a moment that you are drowning. I am walking along the promenade and see you in the water, thrashing about and screaming for me to save you. Hanging on the sea wall is a life preserver. I remove it, unfurl the rope, and hurl the life preserver into the water beside you. You see the life preserver. But you ignore it and continue thrashing about, screaming for me to save you. I scream back at you, “Grab the life preserver!” But you decline. You refuse my help. You drown.
If you are struggling with pornography, you may feel as though you are drowning in your sin. Pornography is so all-consuming, so seemingly addictive and powerful that you have no way to resist it. Your situation appears hopeless. But do you not know that God always throws you a life preserver in the midst of your temptations? Read 1 Corinthians chapter 10:
“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.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
Every time you are tempted to sin by watching pornography, God throws you a life preserver. God gives you the way to escape the temptation and not drown. Notice that God provides this way of escape “with the temptation” and not instead of it. You should not expect that God will preserve you from all temptations, but instead, that He will deliver you while you are in any temptation. God will not keep you out of the water, but He will prevent you from drowning while in it.
But remember one thing. You are not delivered from your temptations simply because God provides the way of escape. Resistance to sexual temptation is not automatic, any more than the life preserver I throw into the water automatically saves you from drowning. You must grab it. Every time you are tempted to sin sexually, God always makes the way of escape. Every time. Always. But you must grab it.
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