Temptation
is the ultimate itch. Think about it. It’s there, harassing you. You just… You
just gotta get it. Ahh there. Got it. But now look: You’ve got red, irritated
scratch marks and it’s going to burn for a bit. At least it’s not itching
though. Not too much later, there that itch is yet again. Incessant. Annoying.
Yet somehow appealing, inviting. It feels absolutely impossible to ignore it. If you don’t appease it, it won’t go away.
You might as well give in.
But wait.
It is possible to ignore the itch,
but it’s so difficult. It takes a lot of willpower, and that’s a fact.
Sometimes the itch comes at the most inconvenient time or place, and you have
no choice but to ignore it. There are times when the urge to scratch is overwhelmingly
strong and the itch is so awful you just want to scream in frustration.
Now connect
the dots back to temptation. We often scratch when we don’t want to and know we
shouldn’t. It’s just like what Romans 7 says. “I do not understand what I do.
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…For I do not do the
good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now
if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin
living in me that does it” (verses 15, 19-20). This is the irritating
temptation to scratch that seems impossible to overlook. However, God does
promise us an escape. “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 endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). When you are tempted and you
feel like the only thing to do is to satisfy it, remember this: God will
relieve you of your struggle if you ask for help. It seems a lot easier said
than done, but the more you learn to avoid “scratching” those tempting itches,
the more you build self-control and dependence on God.
