The Door You Forget Is There

No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, WEB)

Paul writes to the Corinthians that no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man, and that God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. The first thing worth sitting with is that word common. When the craving hits, it feels like a private failure, like something is wrong with you specifically, some defect that other men do not carry. You look around at the men in the room, at church, at work, and you assume they do not know this pull the way you know it. Paul says no. This is the ordinary trouble of being a man, and you are not the exception you fear you are. Every brother beside you has stood where you are standing.

The second thing is the promise of a way out. God does not remove the pressure, but he builds a door into every room the temptation puts you in. The trouble is that in the heat of the moment we stop looking for the door. We tell ourselves it is too late, that the outcome is already decided, and we walk the familiar path with our eyes half closed, almost relieved to stop fighting. That feeling of inevitability is one of the oldest lies in this whole struggle, and believing it is often the last step before the fall.

It is almost never too late. The door might be a phone call, a walk outside, a text to a brother, the plain act of standing up and leaving the room your body wants to stay in. It rarely looks dramatic, and it rarely feels like rescue while you are doing it. Ask God to show you the escape before you convince yourself there is none, and trust that because he is faithful, the door is already there whether or not you can see it yet.