The Christian Broadcasting Network

Explore

Blogs

Resources

Email Updates

Latest family articles and help. Subscribe

Weekly CBN.com top stories and videos. Subscribe



Book

Single Servings: 90 Devotions to Feed Your Soul

By Lee Warren
(Revell Books)
ISBN: 0800759478

 
Related Links

More articles for Singles on CBN.com

 
TEMPTATION

Quick! Where’s the Escape Hatch?

Lee Warren

CBN.com 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

John is a thirty-eight-year-old who struggles with physical desires. Not long ago he went on a church singles retreat during which the group took a tour of the downtown area of the large city they were visiting. During the tour, several provocatively dressed women walked by and caught John’s eye.

Knowing he was surrounded by people from his church helped him turn his head away before he began to lust for the women he’d seen. In this particular instance, the “way of escape” that God provided when John was tempted was John’s consciousness of the fact that he was with people from church. He didn’t want to lust in front of them.

If you struggle with physical desires, you may feel as if your sex drive is abnormal and that something is wrong with you. Chances are that you are a normal human being with a healthy sex drive. Look back at verse 13 again. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” The temptation you are experiencing is common to everyone. So don’t let your struggles isolate you from the body of Christ, but rather depend on fellow believers to help you through your struggles.

John either meets or speaks on the phone with a man from church once a week to help build him up in Christ and keep him accountable. It’s not a relationship of judgment when John fails but rather one that lovingly helps keep him on track and better prepared for the next instance when he will be tempted.

The combination of God always providing a way of escape and John surrounding himself with Christians who love him helps him battle his temptation to give in to physical desire.

Digging Deeper into 1 Corinthians 10:13
1. If you have a wandering eye, what are your strategies to keep it under control?

2. What have you thought about 1 Corinthians 10:13 in the past?

3. How has God made a way of escape for you in the past as he did for John?

4. Normally, how willing are you to look for God’s way of escape?

5. Name one or two friends who could be built-in escape hatches for you like John’s friends.


Excerpted from Single Servings: 90 Devotions to Feed Your Soul by Lee Warren. Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, copyright © 2005. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published by other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group. Visit the publisher's Web site at www.BakerPublishingGroup.com.

 

  • Translate
  • Print Page


CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?

A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.

Do You Know Jesus
Grow In Your Faith

Need Prayer?

Call 1-800-700-7000
Email your prayer request

Email iconSign up for E-mail Updates Full List

 E-mail: