Temptation

Our confidence in overcoming temptation is in the faithfulness of the Lord who answers the petition He taught us to pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
Christ seeks to lead us out of patterns that will make us vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. That’s why He confronts us about our preemptive hugging of the center stage. He seeks to deliver us from habits of control because He knows we can’t pull it off alone. When we try and then find we need power, He knows that Satan will be ready to offer us false power.
Satan’s power comes at very high cost: his methods and his control cause a frightening spiraling descent into power tactics. But at any point we can call, and Christ will deliver us.
Not only has our Lord been through all the temptations we face and not only does He know every device of the tempter, He alone has power and authority over Satan. In the power struggle between good and evil in the spiritual world Christ always wins. The Father has given that authority to Christ.
We must call for aid. As has been stressed, He waits until we want His deliverance. His ongoing care to keep us out of temptation is freely given. He meets us at the pass erecting “Do Not Enter” signs on certain paths. But even as we push His sign aside and get into trouble He will help us even then in response to our cry for help.
The same Lord who erects the “No Entry” sign also places an “Only Way Out” sign in the jungle of defeat when we get lost. Christ’s help is the expression of the faithfulness of God that Paul touted with such gratitude. No temptation has overtaken you except as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also provide a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13). The name of Christ is the way out. Christ delivers.