"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
In his letter to the believers in Corinth, the Apostle Paul told them that temptation is common to all men and that all of them would be tempted. Then he told them that God would not let them be tempted beyond that which they could bear. When they were tempted, God would always provide them with a way out to avoid sin and to do that which was right.
Today, all of us are tempted to sin. The devil tempted Christ repeatedly, and he will tempt us. (Matthew 4:1-11) Being tempted is not a sin, it is yielding and giving in to the temptation that is a sin. The devil tempts us with a host of sins. (Romans 1:20-32 and Romans 2:1-8) Most of us do not like to think about our sins or the number of times that we give in to temptation. We sin when we break on of the ten commandments. We sin when we misuse and abuse our body, which is the temple of The Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19) We sin, not only by what we do and say, but we also sin by what we think. (Proverbs 23:7 and Matthew 5:28) In fact the Bible teaches us that all unrighteousness is sin. (1 John 5:17) All of us are sinners, we just choose to sin differently. (Romans 3:10 and Romans 3:23) We choose to sin, and we can choose not to sin. When we are tempted, God always provides us with a way to avoid sin. Submit to The Lord and we can resist temptation, and the devil will flee from us. ( James 4:7) Reading the Bible when we are tempted to sin will help us stand up to the temptation. Praying to God and focusing all of our attention on Him when we are tempted will also help us to stand up to temptation. We all need to ask God to forgive us of our sins, and we need to ask for His help to keep us from yielding to temptation and sin. Let's yield to sin less, and glorify God more.
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