The Word on Wednesday...

1 Corinthians 10:13- "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."

Galatians 5:1- "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

So many of us have that one area in our lives- a habit, attitude, addiction, fear, doubt- that we keep surrendering to God, but it continues to creep back into our lives. We earnestly pray, no beg, for God to help us, change us, take it away... We repent, ask for forgiveness and promise to give it to Him forever. And for a while we do. We just know that we have claimed victory over that area of our lives. But God never promises that just because we surrender to Him, we'll never have temptation in our lives. So after a while, there it is again, back in our lives. Satan lies to us saying, "You hypocrite! You never really surrendered it to God. You'll never change!" In reality, we really did give it to God and He really is changing us. We just have a choice to make: keep it for a while, pray about it for a while and try to change again OR give it back to God IMMEDIATELY! We've already given it to God, so it's not ours anymore- we just stole it back from God's hands. We have to make the choice not to listen to Satan's lies, not to beat ourselves up about it, not to obsess about how we managed to fall again... Instead, we have to make the choice to listen to God's promise ("He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear... He will provide a way out..."), quickly repent, accept forgiveness and give it back to God immediately. Every time we do this, the "yoke of slavery" will be loosened more and more. Until one day when we surrender it to God- again- it won't return. We will realize that it is truly gone; we are set free; no more bondage. Amen!

Lord,
Thank you so much for your amazing promises. Thank you for assuring us that you will not tempt us beyond what we can bear, and thank you for always providing a way out. What would we do without you?! I, once again, surrender this area in my life to you. I give to you what is rightly yours. I can already feel the "yoke of slavery" diminishing! I pray that my thoughts, words and actions will be pleasing to you. I love you so much! Amen.