What causes a good man to make a terrible decision and suffer a moral failure? So far, we have talked about vulnerabilities and the things that intensify those vulnerabilities. When a vulnerability intensifies, you can be sure an opportunity will present itself.
Note: This article is in a series called Two Roads. Previous articles are available at http://www.webbweekly.com.
An opportunity is a set of circumstances that makes something possible. The Bible calls those opportunities temptation.
For Adam, the opportunity was the forbidden fruit ripening in the middle of the Garden. For Moses, it was an audience for his anger. For David, it was Bathsheba. For Judas, it was thirty pieces of silver. For Peter, it was a quick way out of a tight spot.
Opportunities are everywhere. When a vulnerability intensifies, those opportunities become very hard to resist.
This is especially true in our free-market culture, where capitalism and consumerism go hand in hand. There are people who want to make money, and there are people who have money to spend. The people who want to make money are highly motivated to give the people who want to spend money exactly what they want, where they want, and when they want it. Opportunity is everywhere.
Are you trying to eat less pizza? Good luck with that. If I watch two hours of television in the evening, I estimate I will see at least ten pizza commercials. Generally speaking, pizza commercials don’t air at 9 AM. Very few of us are vulnerable to pizza in the morning, although a left-over piece warmed in the microwave for breakfast is a treat! The people who want to sell pizza know exactly when to put the opportunity for that hot, steamy, cheesy, pepperoni-salty-greasy goodness right in front of you.
After putting it in front of you, they also remove every obstacle that would keep you from enjoying that pizza. Nearly all of those obstacles are overcome by free delivery. How sweet is that?
If you’ve had a long day and you get home late, the refrigerator has nothing appealing, and there is a twenty-dollar bill in your pocket, that pizza commercial might just be the opportunity you can’t resist.
There was a time when you could limit exposure to opportunities by simply turning off the television. That’s not a problem for pizza sellers today. They can send you text messages and emails with irresistible offers and coupons. They can make pizza deliciousness appear on whatever device you use to access the internet.
They can also use newspapers, billboards, radio spots, magazines, and direct mail to get their products in front of you.
On top of all the advertising, there are your friends who love pizza and serve it every time you go to their house. Listen, there’s just no escaping the opportunity to eat pizza.
If you do an internet search of articles on the topic of how to NOT eat pizza, the fact that you typed the word pizza will guarantee you see a lot of pizza advertising for the next month. It’s intense.
Listen, there’s nothing wrong with eating pizza. I’m just using pizza as an example. You know your vulnerabilities. Is it porn? Gambling? A fantasy or gaming world? Buying stuff you don’t need? Looking for easy love or someone who will at least pay attention to you? What is your pizza? What is it that draws you? What is the opportunity you struggle to resist? Whatever it is, the combination of the free market, the internet, and the phone in your pocket will ensure an opportunity is available 24/7/365.
We recite the Lord’s Prayer often. In it, we ask God to lead us not into temptation. How sad that we lead ourselves into it. The fact is, God doesn’t tempt us with evil. Listen to what James had to say about it.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:12-15
The problem is our own vulnerabilities, our own evil desires. We have no one else to blame. He goes on to say this in James 4:1-3, What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have to because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
My friends, we will face a lot of opportunities today to do the wrong thing. We have choices to make, and we better be prepared to make the right ones. God knows you can do it. In fact, He guarantees that you can endure the onslaught. You don’t have to fail. God is empowering you to fight those battles. Your wife is counting on you to fight those battles. So are your kids and everyone else in your sphere of influence. You can do it. That truth is why Paul wrote I Corinthians 10:13.
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And 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.
My friend, be encouraged and fight the good fight. You can overcome!
