Windows of Enticement

(Proverbs 1:10 KJV)  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

My daughter and I somehow were talking about smoking and she asked me if I had ever tried tobacco.  When I said, “No”, I explained the different stages I had gone through.  One of the stages was a short period where I would have tried it if someone had offered me one.  After that brief window I was not open to it at all.  If someone had enticed me I would have at least opened a door to a different direction in life.

Or maybe not.  Perhaps one drag would have been enough.  I have enough confidence to the work of the Holy Spirit to believe that if I had been that stupid, Providence would have made me wake up. 

So?  The fact remains that there are temptations around us and they are often active, not passive.  The active are often easier to resist than the ones that just lay in wait.  Remember that line from the Lord’s Prayer, “...and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,...”  Next time you are at church and the congregation recites it, let it jump out and wake you up.