Whenever my kids buy a new pair of shoes, we always test them out in the store. “Let’s see how high you can jump, now that you have those shoes on.” Let’s see how fast you can run”. It’s crucial to a kid how quickly they can run, and a new pair of shoes always seem to help us become quicker and quicker. Even I have found myself running from one end of the store to the other to test out the new kicks. Its fun to be quick in that regard. However…
Don’t be quick to run towards sin. Have you ever noticed, in the Garden of Eden, when Eve had the first experience of temptation, she seemed to display no resistance to the devil’s temptation? Instead, as soon as Satan attracted her to the fruit, she “saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye” (Genesis 3:6). Now compare that to Christ in His temptation. When He was tired and hungry after forty days and forty nights of fasting, He refused to give in to the devil’s tempting and killed the temptation in His mind without allowing it to grow into sin (Matthew 4:1-11).
What about us? Are we quick to run into mischief, wickedness, and sin? It’s one of the things God hates. (Proverbs 6:16-19)
Number Five: God hates feet that run rapidly to evil
If we allow evil thoughts and imagination, (the fourth thing God hates) to be nourished and fed, it will eventually lead to sinful actions. There are people in every community, every church, and every family who openly and flagrantly violate God’s law. They boast that they are not hypocrites, and they don’t even try to pretend to be good. But this does not excuse them for their wickedness.
If there is one area we need to be slow, it is in facing temptation, sin, wickedness, and evil. If anything, let’s be quick to run the opposite direction.
More to come…
I love you,
Alexander