Soooo Tempting!

Given enough time, you and I are faced with temptations that could do us in. Like last night, I was installing shelving in the garage. I had drilled holes into the cement blocks and inserted a tapcon in one bracket. Moving onto the other side I grabbed another tapcon, the ratchet, and moved toward the bracket when 'bip, tinkle, pop' the tapcon fell to the floor and landed right on a mousetrap!

Yes, we have had a few mice in the garage, but not any longer....

Once again, I could not have intentionally dropped this screw one hundred times and had it fall precisely this way even once without setting off the trap. I have to chuckle sometimes when things like this happens. Sort of like the aspirin that slipped out of my hand a while back and took an almost impossible trail clear across the other side of the room. Well, anyway, this screw landed on a trap and nothing happened. My first inclination was to reach down and pick up the screw, then thought better of it. After getting another screw and placing it in the wall, I bent over and gently picked up the trap. After releasing the tension on the trap, the screw fell to the floor and I reset the trap.

My first instinct was to reach down and grab the fallen fastener. Glad I stopped midway! I remember back about 40 years ago, a friend of mine suffered severe injuries. He had been mowing grass with a push mower and had run over something in the grass. Believing the impediment was still under the mower, he reached down and stuck his hand under the running mower. He did it without thinking. It was just an instinctual thing (almost automatic). This was before safety features were built into mowers like we enjoy today.

Unfortunately, temptations are placed before us by the deceiver and often it seems okay to follow through with an adverse action. Innocent, intentions turn to painful circumstances. Satan laughs with joy simply because we have lost contact with the true lover of our soul. God warns us to avoid things that have the power to disable our faith.

Avoiding temptations includes a precise reasoning of said temptaion and a solid approach to deal with it. The Rx for us is to be immersed in an ongoing celebration and admiration of God's goodness and grace. Allow God to restore your soul and give him control of your heart and mind. Give him your best and watch God begin to chart your course of faith.

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and

gentleness." (1 Timothy 6:11, NIV)

​"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7, NIV)

Lent continues to be a season of thoughtful living. If today finds you facing a temptation, stop. Take a deep breath and consider God's will in the situation and then choose a better way.

Peace,