Overcoming Temptation: Finding a Way of Escape

God wants us to escape from our temptations. But why do we too often miss seeing the way to escape that He provides? What’s our part in overcoming temptation?

Christianity is a calling to overcome sin and the temptations to sin that come from society, Satan and ourselves. Jesus Christ promises great and wonderful gifts to the overcomers, as you can see in reading through His messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.

But what does it mean to be an overcomer? How do we overcome sin? And, more specifically, how do we overcome temptation?

God’s part

Realize that everything starts with God and Jesus Christ. Without Christ’s sacrifice, nothing we could do could ever pay for the penalty of our past sins.

To be an overcomer, we have to repent and receive God’s unmerited forgiveness. And even the opportunity to repent is a gift of God. And the faith we need to overcome must also come from God. We can’t work it up ourselves. It is Christ’s faith working in us.

So, as Herbert W. Armstrong, a Church of God leader whose publishing work spanned over half of the 20th century, used to say, we must pray as if it all depends on God, then work as if it all depends on us.

Finding the way of escape

How do we find the way to escape temptations? To know where to look, we have to understand what temptation is. James explained: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).

This shows the progression of temptation, drawing us away from God and toward sin and death. This is going the way of Satan—we’ll call it the Devil’s Highway. It has a steep downward grade, and the farther down the Devil’s Highway you get, the harder it is to stop, and the harder it is to turn around. If we are traveling down the Devil’s Highway, looking at the alluring temptations he puts on the way, we are not looking in the right direction for what we’ll call the Way of Escape.

To find that Way of Escape, let’s look at another passage in the book of James: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:7-8).

A U-turn

If we submit to God, we will be looking to Him. He gives us the strength and help to resist the devil. How does this work? I think verse 8 gives us a key of where to look for the Way of Escape. We need to draw near to God.

When we are being drawn away from God by temptation on the Devil’s Highway, this means we must do a U-turn! We have to turn around and head uphill toward God. When we begin to turn around, that’s when we see the Way of Escape—it’s the road toward God!

Ideally we will spend most of our time with our thoughts headed toward God. Prayer, Bible study, meditation, fasting, fellowship and service are all part of traveling on God’s Highway. The nearer we are to God, the better we will know Him. John explains what it takes to come to know God: “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). As we seek to obey God—as we seek to live by the letter and spirit of God’s laws—we will draw near to God and come to know Him.

That is how we avoid temptation in the first place! When we are focused on God’s Highway, we will ignore the temptations to turn around and go on the Devil’s Highway.

But when temptations do creep in, if we have been continually close to God, we will find it much easier to call out to God for help and to quickly do a U-turn and get back on God’s Highway. The Way of Escape—that U-turn—will be easier to see.

Real-life examples

What does this mean in real life? Let’s consider two quick examples.

If you are like me, sometimes you feel tempted to complain. Someone has done something that affects you, and you don’t like it. I’m not talking about looking for something to help solve the problem. I’m talking about the temptation to do the kind of complaining that does no one any good.

If we continue to think about how the other person’s actions were crazy, how they aggravated us, how they made our life more difficult—the temptation to complain and gripe and murmur gets stronger.

To get off that downward highway, we have to take a U-turn. This might involve praying for God’s help and trying to understand the other person and give the person the benefit of the doubt. Or it may just involve turning it over to God and seeking His help to forgive the person.

Another quick example: If you’re tempted to see a bad movie, don’t keep thinking about it. Don’t drive to the theater. Don’t go inside. Don’t go to the middle of the row where it will be hard to get out! Each step of the way down the Devil’s Highway we go, the harder it is for us to see that Way of Escape—that U-turn that we can take to draw near to God.

Overcome evil with good

So remember, when you are tempted and drawn toward the Devil’s Highway, the Way of Escape is to take an immediate U-turn, and head back toward God. When you are drawing near to God and submitting to Him, the devil will flee.

Don’t be overcome by evil, but take the Way of Escape and, with God’s help, overcome evil with good.

For more about dealing with temptations, see "The Truth About Temptation."

Mike Bennett coordinates the blogs for the Church of God, a Worldwide Association. He and his wife, Becky, and two daughters attend the Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio, congregation.