“If there is an Enemy of Souls (and I have not the slightest doubt that there is), one thing he cannot abide is the desire for purity. Hence a man’s or a woman’s passions become his battleground. The Lover of Souls does not prevent this. I was perplexed because it seemed to me He should prevent it, but He doesn’t. He wants us to learn to use our weapons.” -Elisabeth Elliot

I read this quote in one of my Bible Studies recently and it made me admire Elisabeth Elliot even more. She hit the nail on the head. We think that God should save us from every bad circumstance, but there is a reason why He does not. It is not because God wants us to suffer. If He wanted that, He would never have sent Jesus to suffer and die in our place. It is because He want us to “use our weapons”. We are in a world that Satan has been given dominion over. Yet, everything is filtered through God’s hand. Satan is not given total freedom to screw up our lives as much as he would like. I cringe at the thought of what he would do if he was able to. Instead, God desires us to learn how to stand strong and firm in those difficult times. He equips us with everything that we need to fight Satan in our lives. It’s just a matter of us using those weapons and putting on the armor that He has given to us.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:11-17)

Nobody is perfect, not even Christians. We, as Christians, will not be made perfect until we are in Heaven, have been given a new, glorified body and are standing at the feet of Jesus. Even though we know that we need truth, righteousness, readiness, faith and salvation, we still may falter. We can get so caught up on the details of our difficult circumstances that we don’t look beyond the problem. We don’t always remember that God has already won the battle against Satan. We don’t need to worry that our lives will spiral out of control because God will always save us. The problem is that we don’t know how much we can take and we fear that we will be given more than we can handle. The truth is that only God knows our limits and He will never allow us to be given more than we can take. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 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 stand up under it.”

Do you see how God will even provide an escape route for us? He is always watching out for our best interests.

While God may allow things to happen in our lives, He is not putting things in our lives to tempt us to commit wrong acts. God would not put another man in a married woman’s life to cause her to cheat on her husband. God would not place the answers to a test at our fingertips in order to see if we will copy them down. People are very protective of their independence and free will. They do not want to be told what to do. That is why it confuses me when those independent thinkers will say that God placed a temptation or sin before them. It’s just not so. That is all Satan’s doing. Even though God can take adultry, cheating, slander, sexual immorality, pride, etc. and turn them around for good, as long as we turn from them, repent and ask forgiveness, we should never blame God for allowing them to happen.

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” (James 1:13-14)

Again, I want to point out that God has given us the tools to fight temptation and ignore Satan’s call. It is up to us to train for those times. We need to be ready and alert for the times when Satan comes lurking around. We may not see the affects of sin right away. Satan is very sneaky that way. If we are caught off guard and compromise what we know is right, we can easily proceed down the wrong path. All Satan needs is a tiny foothold in our life and he can easily begin his climb into every crevice of our being. That is why it is important for us to know what we believe. It is important that we know the Truth of God’s Word and stay in the Bible on a regular basis. It’s also important to pray. Ask God for help, for guidance, and for eyes to see our own weaknesses. We cannot be blind to our temptations or the things that can trigger us to give in to them.

I, like anyone, need to be aware of the places I go, things I watch, music I listen to, people I have discussions with, and what I expose myself to. Are they causing me to sin? Are they giving me thoughts that I should not be having or causing me to say things I will later regret? If so, I need to flee and turn to God. Sometimes, God may be my only friend. He is definitely going to be the only One that will always understand what I’m going through. He is also the only One that has equipped me to fight the good fight and be victorious over Satan. So, use the weapons He has given you and train until Jesus returns to take us home.