Slow Fade

Something slightly different to normal. I want you to watch a video before continuing with this devotion. It’s a drama to a song Everything by Lifehouse.

One of the things that strikes me about that video is that every time the girl is tempted, every time she is led astray by her friends, Jesus is there, offering an alternative option. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 says: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God if 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.”(NIV)
We need to be so careful with sin, as it has such destructive potential. As the Casting Crowns song Slow Fade says, people never crumble in a day, it is a slow fade as we start compromising on the little things and black and white turns to grey. In the video it started out so minor, spending more time with the wrong crowd, but it quickly snowballed into much more major sins – drinks, drugs, exploitation and finally the girl is driven to the point of suicide.
But it didn’t start out with anything ‘major’. It gradually built up. And it can so easily happen to us. Once we compromise on the small matters it soon gets easier to compromise on the bigger issues.
So there’s a challenge for us if we think we are standing firm. We need to make sure there is no sin, no matter how small, we allow ourselves to be compromised on, because when we do we give the devil a foothold on our lives, and he will push for more and more.
And if there is a particular sin in your life at the moment, we can take hope from the fact that God still loves us, and if we repent, he will welcome us back with open arms, like in the story of the Prodigal Son.
In the non-Christian world we live in there is temptation around every corner, in the newsagents, on our TVs each night, at pre-formals, a couple of clicks away on the internet. But with God’s help, we can stand up under it.