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Avoiding Potential Temptations
1 Chronicles 14:12
"And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire."
Avoiding potential temptations is important to the success of your Christian life. David understood this importance, and he took some great steps to avoid these potential downfalls. It was a common occurrence for the heathen to take their gods to war as a belief that their presence would cause military success. God knew that this was the heathen's practice, so He commanded in Deuteronomy 7:25, "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God." David obeyed this command and burnt the heathen gods so that they would not become a lure to the children of Israel.
It is important that every Christian learns to destroy potential temptations that could destroy them. One of the reasons many Christians fall into sin is because they allow potential temptations to stay in their presence. This is foolish because nobody is able to consistently be in the presence of temptation without it eventually overtaking them. If you don't want to yield to temptation, then you should destroy those things that could be potential temptations.
First, you ought to destroy those things that are potential temptations for everyone. There are some things that can tempt you because you are involved with their activities. For instance, when you are involved in sports leagues you could be tempted to miss church for a championship game. Being involved in a sports league is not sinful, but when they have games that would cause you to miss church, then they become sinful. You would be better off not joining the league so that you won't be tempted to miss church. You may say that you would never miss church when the pressure is not upon you, but when that pressure is applied, you could easily yield to the temptation by justifying one church service as not that big of a deal. This is just one area that I have used to illustrate temptations that everyone could face. Whatever could be a potential temptation in your life should be avoided.
Furthermore, you should destroy those things that are potential temptations unique to yourself. If you used to be involved in some sin, then you have a temptation that is unique to that sin. I recall a story about a young man who used to go to places where women would display themselves in a wicked manner. After this young man got saved, he was riding in the car with his pastor when they were about ready to pass by one of those establishments. This young man bent over and put his face in his lap and asked the pastor to let him know when they were past a certain street. The pastor asked this young man why he buried his face in his lap. The young man responded by telling the pastor that before he got saved he used to frequent a place that they drove by, and he found that the best way to avoid being tempted by this place was to never look at it again. He said when he was driving by himself, he would arrange his driving route so as to avoid driving by that place. You must do the same thing this young man did with any temptation that is unique to yourself. You must destroy any potential temptations that could cause you to go back into sin.
You know what you are tempted by or what could tempt you. If you want to avoid the sin that the temptation tries to lure you into, then destroy that temptation and you will destroy the possibility of committing the sin that that temptation would cause.