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"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. " "Our heavenly Father measures and weighs every trial before He permits it to come upon the believer. He considers the circumstances and the strength of the one who is to stand under the proving and test of God, and He never permits the temptations to be greater than the capacity of resistance. If the soul is overborne, the person over-powered, this can never be charged to God, . . . but the one tempted was not vigilant and prayerful and did not appropriate by faith the provisions God had abundantly in store for him. Christ never failed a believer in his hour of combat. The believer must claim the promise and meet the foe in the name of the Lord." When you are a true believer, you will not be tempted beyond what you can bear, and He also will make a way of escape, but we must take His way of escape, otherwise He cannot help us. When I first understood what it really meant to be a Christian, I sur-rendered all my heart to God, with all of my heart sins. I told God, "I give up my right to become impatient or irritated with my children. I especially give up my right to resent my husband, no matter what he does. He may not do things according to my way of thinking, but I have no right to resent him. Why should I yield to Satan's spirit to correct others. I want to yield to your Holy Spirit and allow God to work in me His love for my children and my husband, and pray for them instead of allowing Satan to use me to bring his spirit into our home. When I surrendered fully to God, I believed that He would take away my resentment, and give me an understanding attitude toward my husband and children. And He did! I also believed that He could then keep me from falling as He had promised. The next day as I went about my work, I don't remember any temptation coming to me until the evening. We were having worship and I was reading from a book on prayer. Suddenly my husband, who was an editor, corrected a sentence problem in the book. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but I did not like it when he did it while we were having worship, because it distracted us. And so I would reprove him in a wrong spirit and worship would be spoiled. But I would blame him for spoiling worship! This evening, as he corrected a sentence problem, I immediately reacted. Immediately the Holy Spirit strongly convicted me that I had sinned, and immediately I exclaimed, "I have sinned! " The family was surprised at my confession. Later, when I shared the story with someone, my son, who was present, remarked, "O Mom, how well I remember that night! That was the first time I heard you take the blame! " You see, I had learned from my father always to blame others when I got upset with them, even though it was my spirit that was wrong. It is so easy to blame others when we allow ourselves to become irritated by something they do or say. But there is no excuse for sin! That evening I again asked God to forgive and cleanse me, and to restore me to Himself. Then I pleaded with Him to show me the way of escape so that I would not react again in a wrong way. I believed He would teach me how to keep from falling, because He had promised that He was able to do that. The next day I went about my work and again I don't remember any temptation until the evening. As we were again having family worship I was reading from the same book. Again my husband corrected a sentence problem. Instantly I felt the temptation to react. We read that the Christian will feel the prompting to sin. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Instantly the Holy Spirit reminded me, in my conscience, "You gave up the right to resent your husband no matter what he does, don't you remember?" Instantly I responded, "Yes, and I really meant it! " Immediately the Holy Spirit so controlled my spirit, that I did not say a word. No one even knew that I was tempted! And I knew I had found the way of escape! When we are tempted the Holy Spirit will try to alert us, and if we quickly submit to God, He will then have the right to control our spirit and give us the victory. Later I found these quotes. "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.'" "Voices inspired by God are crying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' If men will hear the voice of warning, if they will trust to God's guidance and not to finite judgment, they will be safe. " At the moment of temptation, quickly submit to God. He always leaves you free to choose. "As soon as we incline our will to harmonize with God's will, the grace of Christ stands ready to cooperate with the human agent." "If the voice of Jesus is not heeded at once, it becomes confused in the mind with a multitude of other voices." "We want to become so sensitive to holy influences that the lightest whisper of Jesus will move our souls." "Allow no taunts, no threats, no sneering remarks, to induce you to violate your conscience in the least particular, and thus open a door whereby Satan can come in and control the mind." "Conscience is the voice of God, heard amid the conflict of human passions; when it is resisted, the Spirit of God is grieved. " "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." "The Holy Spirit will not compel men to take a certain course of action. We are free moral agents; and when sufficient evidence has been given us as to our duty, it is left with us to decide our course." |