Do you know what's stupid? Paper cuts. Somehow I managed to get two of them this week alone! I hate how i'm totally focused on doing something and I just happen to be careless enough to run my finger along the paper too fast and -Boom! Pain and irritation all day! If I had known that would've happened I would have changed one little tiny thing and not had to deal with the consequences at all.
If I would change my actions to avoid a tiny paper cut, why not change them to avoid sin? Amos 5:14 tells us to "Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. " Run from evil. That does not sound like something passive or something that is going to happen by accident. If we are serious about avoiding sin, we need to be intentional about avoiding it. James 4:7 tells us that when we resist the devil he flees from us. As we saw in Amos The Lord God of the Heaven's armies will be our helper! We are not just sitting here alone in the evil world trying to run from evil. Yet we still have the responsibility to choose to take that first step in running from temptation.
Certain things in our lives may not by sinful in and of themselves; but if they cause us to sin, they are not worth it. We are never going to accidentally avoid sinning. Satan is not trying to make us stumble when he has a "good day" or on certain days of the week. He is throwing everything he has at you and me and its time we do the same.
In Matthew 5:30 Jesus gives us some advice about how to do that by saying, "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell!". That sounds fun! Cutting things that cause us to sin out of our lives probably is not going to be very fun... but Jesus still makes a point that He is very serious about His children avoiding sin no matter what it costs. We are willing to change our actions when we do not enjoy what they bring about, but what about when He doesn't? The Bible says we are His. In all honesty, we do not get a vote. Now, we know He will help us, and that He works all things to the good of those who love Him but even if that weren't the case is worthy of our obedience at any cost.
As I said, we avoid things that we do not like. We know how hard Satan tries to make us stumble, and if we look at our lives we can see where he succeeds. Are we going to be bold enough to stand up and run?
