But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.-James 1:25
It had been a very, very long Sunday. Setting up the church in our rented space for the morning service, navigating a few difficult personalities in the foyer, trying to make new people welcomed, trying to make sure no one goes into the children’s ministry whose not supposed to, trying to stay in a good spirit even though where I was stationed in the church there was no air conditioning and it was now a humid 90 degrees, and a whole host of other random tasks a pastor ends up doing on Sunday where beginning to take their toll. As I was driving into our night service, McDonald’s golden arches seemed to be shining a little brighter to my weary eyes.
Hmm, what should I get to satisfy this tiredness I feel? A large frappe with whipped cream, a Big Mac, some fried chicken nuggets? I was ready to order a sinful amount of food as I sat in the drive through, but after a long pause of silence, someone finally said through the speaker box, “Hold on just one minute.” The wait turned out to be longer than just one minute . . . a fact that was adding to the annoyance I was trying to solve through fat calories.
As I sat there, I was forced to take a closer look at the menu board. If you look very closely, next to each of the items there is a super small font size of the calories: caramel frappe (520 calories, 28% daily fat), Big Mac (540 calories, 43% daily fat), small fry (230 calories, 17% daily fat), 4 piece nuggets (190 calories, 18% daily fat) . . . “Oh my” I thought to myself.
“Go ahead with your order . . . .”
“Aaaa, I’ll just get a banana strawberry smoothie (210 calories, 1% fat daily fat) . . . .”
How to Resist Temptation: Look Intently Into the Perfect Law that Gives Freedom
Being forced to take a closer look at that menu made me reconsider what I was about to do. In the same way, when we take a closer look at the consequences of our choices written in God’s word, we almost always make a better decision (James 1:25).
The word of God tells us the truth about sin. It doesn’t hide the deadly affects of evil in the tiniest font possible. When we spend time daily in God’s word, truly taking the time to consider the punishments and rewards God offers when we accept grace and obey rather than rejecting grace and disobeying God, the right choice becomes much easier to make.
But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.-James 1:25