The Devil didn’t make you do it … and neither did God!

I’m a mom.  Not just of my own children, but of their friends; of young people that I meet; of the children of my friends; of believers who are younger in the faith then I.  Being a mom means that I get to see people make lots of mistakes or fall into sin. God has blessed me with a great ability to make people feel at ease confessing and then helping them find their way back to the right path.  It is disturbing to me, however, when people imply that God allowed them to fall into their particular sin – whatever it may be.

When I recall my own life – the days before I was fully committed to The Lord; what I can say on no uncertain terms is that what I got caught up in were the things that felt good to me; or that were interesting or appealing to me.  My flesh had desires that were outside of God’s will for me and when I had an opportunity, I sometimes got wrapped up in something that I should not have been in.  The enemy did not have to push me into it and God didn’t have to open me up to temptation; I did what I did because I wanted to! AND, my friend, so do you.

He is a GOOD FATHER.  He wouldn’t allow the enemy to walk into our lives to make us fall – No!  But like any father, he will allow us to experience temptation (like allowing us to drive alone for the first time; or go out on a first date) so that we can learn to make good moral choices.  When we take a situation and make it a sin – it is our own sinful desires that overtake us.

How do we escape?  Call on Him to help us.  He is able and willing to help each of us be victorious over temptations.  According to the His Word, He can allow us to be tempted – but He doesn’t tempt us. He can’t make us fall to evil because He cannot move positively toward sin/evil.  Being His children we have the beautiful benefit of calling on Him – Our Father – to stand with us, and to stand within us, and keep us from falling.  He delights in helping us to stand!