5.18 Dig the Well Before You Need the Water

The key to a good defensive strategy is to prayerfully dig the well before you need the water. In other words, don’t wait until the moment of temptation to decide how you will handle it. That’s much too late. In the moment, you are weak and believing all the lies that the Enemy is selling.

You need a plan to help you maintain your sexual purity. The plan should include answers to the following:

PREVENTION: How will I avoid sexual temptation?

You may have heard about Billy Graham’s provisions for sexual purity. He always travels with at least one other man. He never counsels with a woman alone, and he won’t even get on an elevator with women if he is the only man present. You may call it excessive; I call it smart.

INTERVENTION: What will I do if I am tempted?

I have an agreement with my accountability partner that I will call him if I’m tempted. I also encourage you to memorize Scripture (some recommended Scriptures are in the Appendix) so that you can defend yourself as Jesus did when He was tempted in the desert.

REPERCUSSION: What are the consequences if I fall?

Consequences seem to shrink in the moment of temptation, so make them significant enough to make you think twice. To whom will you have to confess? What penalties will you incur? If you’ve had consequences in the past but sinned anyway, you need stronger consequences.

I want to be clear about these self-imposed consequences. Nothing is required other than repentance to restore your relationship with God. These consequences are simply to help those of us who tragically find it too easy to take advantage of God’s grace, knowing that He will forgive us. Because they are tangible, they seem more real to us when we are hovering on the brink.

4:3 All or Nuthin’

Don’t try to do all the spiritual disciplines at once.  So many of us men feel that we have to be Super Christians or that we shouldn’t even try.  We either do all the spiritual disciplines and do them better than anyone else (this is the sin of “compare-a-son,” which I’ll talk about a little later), or we give up.  This is a trap. Watch out for it.

 

The danger in this trap is that it causes many of us to give up without a fight. If complete victory over our words, thoughts and deeds isn’t possible, why try? If we can’t keep up daily devotionals 365 days a year, why start? If we can’t commit to God like Billy Graham, why bother? This is the “fool’s choice.” It’s not the real choice we are faced with, but it’s the only one Satan wants us to see. Why? Because most of the time, when the choice is all or nothing, God gets nothing, and Satan knows it.

 

It’s the fool’s choice because the truth is that we are never able to give God “all.” Have you ever had an extended time in your life when you didn’t sin at all? Of course not.  Besides, we don’t build our walls in our own power.  God builds them – at His pace.

 

We come to God with a heart that is willing to submit to Him, and He gives us the power to live righteously. Outside His power, we don’t have a chance of setting even one stone in our walls.