Flee!

   As we respond to the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength ( Mark 12:30), which shows God's intense yearning for personal relationship with us, we find that our own sin separates us from Him. How do we overcome temptation and sin? Recently i received a message from India through a friend and brother in Christ. The first thing that this brother shared was to flee or run from temptation. Our pride causes us to think that we can embrace temptation but not succumb to it.
    The Bible speaks differently. In 1 Timothy 6: 9-11 Timothy, a man so trusted by Paul that he left him in the major city of Ephesus to combat false teachers ( 1 Timothy 1:3), is told to flee the love of money. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 the Holy Spirit through Paul says to flee sexual immorality. Later in chapter 10 the Corinthians believers are told to flee from idolatry. (verse 14) Finally Timothy is told to flee youthful lusts. (2 Timothy 2:22) When confronted by the lascivious intent of Potiphar's wife Joseph fled. (Genesis 39:11)
     Money, sex, idolatry and lusts are some of the most powerful drives known to humanity. God tells us to flee. We will not overcome them by our own unaided human efforts. As Jesus states clearly in John 15:5 "apart from Me you can do nothing." If Jesus needed to pray to the Father for strength and help then surely we do also. As the Indian author says we should look to the example of our Lord, "who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear..." ( Hebrews 5:7 NKJV)