The only one who knows...
Illustration
The only one who knows the temptation to sin in its full intensity is the one who has not sinned. Most of us give in to sin, before the temptation becomes uncomfortable. Only the one who has resisted it to the end knows the pain that can be involved. So it is that we can go confidently to Christ even when, or especially when we are plagued by temptation. He has been there before. One Sunday before worship, a young man spoke to me of the anger and resentment he felt toward members of the community and some of the members of the church over the abuse his wife had taken in her efforts to serve responsibly on the school board. He could not even think about it too much, because if he did, he felt tied up in knots. All he wanted to do was "blow off" the community as a whole, stay on his farm and just try to be the best farmer he could. He knew he had to find a way to curb the resentment and eventually forgive people, but he did not see how. He struggled with himself for weeks, and he asked me, "What is winning, what is losing, in a case like this?" I had to answer, "I don't know. Only you can answer that within yourself." As we were waiting for worship to begin, I did not think to ask him if in his prayers he took all this resentment and anger to Christ, who certainly had opportunity for similar feelings in his life and ministry. -- Johnson-Hoy
