I once read an article in a doctor’s waiting room. It dealt with the using of weights to build muscle mass and strength. I had never considered how to use weights. To me, they were just inert resistance. The first point that the writer made was that one must first test one’s self by selecting weights that could be lifted by you between eight to twelve times. If you could continue beyond that number, select a heavier weight until more than a dozen times is not possible. The reason for this is that the muscle must be strained and actually stretched so that the body will fill in the gaps formed with new muscle. After that one can lift a slightly heavier weight and so on. In other words, this explains the saying, “No pain, no gain.” If there is no pain, you have not damaged the muscle, and it will not grow larger.
With this in mind, let’s consider, 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Is this not saying, God will permit you to be tempted, strained like the muscle, that you may be strengthened? Strangely, He permits it to strengthen us!
God is not in the tempting business, but as there are plenty of others who are; God is still in control. He will not allow you to be tempted greater than you are able. God is in the protection, and the escape business. He will make a way of escape, in every case, thus making nonsense the saying, “The Devil made me do it.” The Devil, or one of his, can put you under great pressure, but God will not allow him to overwhelm you.
Immediately after his baptism, our Lord Jesus, went into the wilderness where the Devil used every pressure he could to break him. Jesus had not eaten for forty days, so the Devil tried to tempt him to use his power selfishly for himself. Jesus’ answer was, “It is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4. Again the Devil tried with a different temptation to get him to use his power in order to get immediate attention by leaping from the temple tower and to land safely in front of the crowds gathered there. When this failed, he tried again to tempt Jesus to avoid his coming crucifixion for the salvation of the nations. This time, he showed him the nations spread out before him, offering them to him, if Jesus would just worship him. In each case, the words, “It is written” prefix the response. There is our clue, Jesus was tempted, but without sin. The reason was His knowledge and use of the Word. The use of the words, “It is written” was his answer. He was fluent in the Word, in His case it was the scriptures of the Old Covenant, but for us it is expanded to the entire Bible. When we know immediately the divisions, so we can turn immediately to the right books for the content we need, we are well on the way. Read and make use of your Bible.
I have a wife who finds maps fascinating and she can happily search a map for hours. That is what we need to encourage in ourselves, for the Bible is our roadmap of life and beyond as well. 
Know the Word, use it, and The Devil will flee from you. When we first bought the building for the Gospel Tract Center and the Central Christian Church, and lived in an apartment above the bookstore, We were told that the Seventh Day Adventist building the other side of the street was never available, but to their own people because that would allow demons to enter into it. The only other church building in the immediate area belonged to a Pentecostal group, who kept coming in to seek books on interpreting dreams, how to cast out demons and such. I personally saw their fear and both Phyllis and I have felt the cold chill of the presence of an evil one, in our new place of worship, at least once, so perhaps they had good reasons. However, in both our cases, it was calling upon the Lord Jesus and his saving blood for our salvation, and the use of the Word, that brushed him aside.
It is written, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” James 1:12,13.
Christians will be tempted, but always there is a way of escape. God does not tempt us, but He permits it within our own limits of endurance, to strengthen us for the more severe ones that we may face ahead.
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READ YOUR BIBLE THROUGH THIS YEAR
OCTOBER
20th Sunday - Jeremiah 48, 49:27, Titus 2, Psalm 119:65-72
21st Monday - Jeremiah 49:28-50:46, Titus 3, Psalm 119:73-80
22nd Tuesday - Jeremiah 51:1-58, Philemon, Psalm 119:81-88
23rd Wednesday - Jeremiah 51:59- 52:34, 1 John 1, Proverbs 25:21-28
24th Thursday - Ecclesiastes 1, 2. 3, 1 John 2:1-14, Psalm 119:89-96
25th Friday - Ecclesiastes 4 , 5, 6, 1 John 2:15-29, Psalm 119:97-104
26th Saturday - Ecclesiastes 7, 8, 9, 1 John 3, Psalm 119:105-112
MEMORY VERSE
(Written for Christians) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
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HUMOR
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver’s side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle, and discovered that it was unlocked. “Hey,” I said to the technician, “It’s open.”
His reply was, “I know, I’ve done that side already.”
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