Always a Choice

As we all know, most children love candy! If we have a rule in our family that we don’t eat suckers, we wouldn’t keep suckers in our house. My children would KNOW that suckers are not to be eaten. Can you imagine my son walking in the mall and seeing a candy store? He may keep walking. He may look inside. He may choose to go inside. Now, say he walks in, he hasn’t actually eaten the sucker right? As he looks around, he sees all kinds of different colors, flavors, and shapes that look interesting, maybe good, maybe even delicious. But he remembers that we, his parents, have a rule to not eat suckers. “I’m not eating it. I’m just looking,” he thinks, “Maybe even touching isn’t so bad.” After all he’s just feeling them and seeing the differences between the squishy gel suckers and the hard as a rock ones, but then he remembers he has a dollar in his pocket. Would it really be that bad to try a sucker? “I’ll just try it one time, so I know what it tastes like. That blue one over there! That’s the one I want,” he persuades himself. He puts his hand on the sucker to grab it and looks back at the door to see if anyone is watching…

Temptation is not sin.

Temptations are opportunities to be faithful to God.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

-1 Corinthians 10:13

Sometimes our escape from temptation is the same door we used to walk in. We just need to walk out of the environment. Stop hanging out with that certain person. Close and get rid of that book or magazine. Put restrictions on our computers, TVs, and devices of what, when, and where they can be used, or maybe even to the point of getting rid of something.

Not only should we get out of toxic circumstances that have been continuous places of temptation and sin for us, but we have the choice to stay away from many temptations from the start. From the story, my son could have walked right past the candy store, and if he knew it would draw his attention too much, he could have taken a different route to the store he was going to. Sometimes we just need to say, “No” from the start and not walk in and “tease” ourselves with what we shouldn’t be doing.

How often are we like the child who looks back at the way of escape but for the reason of not wanting to be seen choosing sin. Instead, the view of the door should be seen as a welcome to come out of where you are, to not proceed to disobey God. Visualize this, if my son when grabbing the sucker looked back at the door and saw us, his parents, with arms wide open saying “Come on! You can make the right choice! I believe in you!” How much easier would it be for the child to make the right choice? That is what a “way of escape” is. God gives us an opportunity to turn to Him. To His outstretched arms willing to encourage and lead us into the right choice. God is faithful to us. Will we choose to be faithful to Him?

Disclaimer: I’m not saying eating suckers is sin, and although sucker intake is limited in our house, we do not have a rule against them altogether. :)

Reginna Luna

When she comes across a "mom break" (aka sleeping children), Reginna will most likely be found snuggled up to her husband, cooking, or reading. Being a co-founder of The Renewal Project, she loves the opportunity to minister life, love, and hope found in Jesus.

Every. Single. Morning

Remember having races as a kid?  Everybody would line up, and then someone would holler out “Ready, set, go!” and the race would start.

I ran track in school, and when the racers positioned their cleats in the starting blocks, no one had an advantage.  Each racer started the exact same distance from the finish line with their eyes on the prize.

Never once did someone have a delayed start or a longer race to run because of a poor performance in a previous race.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and pick up your poor performance from the previous day and take it to the starting line?  I have had times when the events of the previous day have worn my patience and good will thin, and rather than just let them stay in the past, I have strapped them to my back and carried them with me into the next day.

Have you ever done that?

Or maybe it was more than just being impatient with a spouse or child.  Maybe it was a series of choices that led down a destructive path. And each day rather than starting out with a clean slate and fresh hope, you dragged the previous missteps into the next week or month or more.

Why do we do that?

The author of Lamentations, believed to be the prophet Jeremiah, encourages us with these promises from 3:22-23.  

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

So what is mercy?  In short, unmerited favor.  The longer version is that mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.  God’s mercy grabs us by the hand, dusts off the mistakes and bad choices from the previous day, and walks us into a future of hope and closer relationship with Him.

We can never outrun or out-sin or wear-out His mercy.  It’s so encouraging to know that even when we run out of patience for ourselves, God never runs out.  His heart is always for us. His ability to forgive far surpasses our comprehension. He’s not worn out or exasperated by us.  He delights in us. In Genesis it says that God saw all that He had created, and it was very good. That includes each one of us!

I encourage you to determine when you start your day to thank God for His new mercies and ask Him to help you receive His unmerited favor and have the mindset of His beloved child.  Because you, dear one, are one of His favorites!

Joy McLaughlin

As a co-founder of The Renewal Project, one of Joy's greatest passions is to help others walk in freedom, joy, and hope. When she is not ministering to others, she also enjoys writing, hiking, and spending time with her family and friends.