I don’t want to write this but I think God wants me to because He’s been bugging me and He keeps bringing it to mind. I don’t want to write about what I wanted when Larry and I were dating. It’s embarrassing.
It was an evening when Larry and I were watching television at his house while “babysitting” his elderly grandmother. Larry’s parents were out of town and he was supposed to be there to watch over her. Larry and I had been struggling with the temptations of heavy petting for a while and to tell you the truth, (I hate writing this), I hoped to be alone with Larry at his house.
But his grandmother refused to go to bed. She dozed in her chair and it was well past her bedtime. I knew exactly what she was doing and I hated her for it. I kept thinking, “Please go to bed.” I hesitate to say it but I may have actually been praying, “Please, God, make her go to bed.” Yes, I was a Christian and Larry had led me to the Lord but I still wanted what I wanted.
When it was finally time for me to leave, I left angry. I was angry with Larry’s grandmother for getting in the way of what I craved. I wanted to even say nasty things to her.
Now I want to bless her. I want to kiss her and love her and thank her a thousand times for being God’s vehicle of protection. Of being the “way of escape” Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:13:
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (NASB)
I can’t help but ask you and myself: what “way of escape” are we not identifying when we are being tempted? Is God offering you and I a way of escape in our temptation but we can’t identify it or we don’t want to accept it?
That is what was happening when Larry’s grandmother “babysat” us. We were two immature nineteen-year-olds who prayed together for strength to resist yet didn’t want to accept God’s vehicle of help.
I still don’t want to write this but I trust God will use it. He’s good at that. Can you see God’s provision of a “way of escape”?