Standing Strong

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Standing Strong
Keywords:   "standing strong" "temptation"

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Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:13*

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.

Question

What does the term "stand up under it" mean to you (see verse above)?

 

Practical help

The Greek expression for "stand up under it" is hupophero (hoop-of-er'-o), meaning to bear patiently and endure (Thayer's Greek Lexicon).

Such bearing up can seem impossible when seized by a powerful temptation like Web porn. Yet this is what the verse above promises can be our response in such circumstances.

Are you a porn struggler who has lost heart you'll ever stand strong against smut?

Let this verse rekindle your hope. How?

First, the verse assures us that God thinks strong resistance is possible, else he wouldn't have included the text in the Bible.

Second, the standing strong depends on God's provision of "a way out," not your moral strength. Your fear of giving in to smut may stem from doubts with your willpower rather rather than with God's power.

So take your eyes off your inadequate strength, and focus instead on God's ability to deliver you from temptation.

This sums up the challenge of the verse above. God is the only "way out" of temptation. Look to him for deliverance. Look to him for true hope.

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*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.