Express Help

…the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations.
2 Peter 2:9

In the American youth classic Jack of the Pony Express, Jennie was minding her business as postmistress when a group of ruffians burst in to terrorize her. Jack, a pony express rider, arrived to save the day. Afterward Jennie told him, “I was beginning to get frightened, but I made up my mind I wouldn’t give in to them. And then—well, you came along, and I guess I never was so glad to see you, Jack!”

There’s a lesson there for us. When temptations barge in and threaten us, we may feel frightened but we must make up our minds we’ll not give in to them. As we hold our ground, our Hero comes along—and are we ever glad to see Him!

Temptation is a negative force, but it can have positive outcomes in our lives when we resist it. When the patriarch Joseph was tempted by Potiphar’s wife, “he refused … he did not heed her” (Genesis 39:8, 10). Likewise, Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8).

Resist the devil, and he will flee you. Make up your mind to defy temptation, and the Lord will help you. He knows how to crush Satan under your feet.

Temptation provokes me to look upward to God.
John Bunyan