Minute Meditations

”A superior pilot is one who stays out of trouble by using his superior judgment to avoid situations which might require the use of his superior skill.” This saying is on a poster for the Canadian Aviation Safety Bureau.

The wise pilot avoids having to use his superior ability by steering clear of the dangers that would require him to use it.

Would that all of us showed this wisdom in our lives! So often we walk where angels fear to tread, confident we will be able to extricate ourselves from the dangers we are courting.

Young drivers so often rely on their driving skills to get them out of a jam that they should have avoided in the first place.

Scripture teaches us that we ought not tempt the Lord our God. Jesus refused to. When Joseph was being tempted by the wife of Potiphar, ”he hearkened not unto her.” When she grabbed his garment and tried to seduce him, he quickly pulled himself right out of the garment he was wearing and ”fled and got him out.”

Paul told the Corinthians, ”Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” Paul also said, ”Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” To the young man Timothy he exhorted, ”But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” ”These things” that Paul was exhorting him to flee from, included the desire to be rich and the love of money.

The sign of the superior pilot is that he avoids the need to use his superior skill by steering clear of dangerous situations. Similarly, those who love God, avoid the temptations that are all around them.

So many attend parties they know they should avoid. In an attempt to get ahead in life, we are tempted to work late with other employees who do not have the same goals and standards. The more we are around those who do not live by God’s standards, the more we court danger. It may seem innocent enough at first, but little by little, we find that we are in predicaments that we never dreamed would happen to us.

Paul warned the Corinthians ”not to associate with sexually immoral people.” He then goes on to explain that he realizes that it would be necessary to leave the world in order not to ever come in contact with those who are immoral, or greedy, or swindlers, or idolaters. The point is we are not to associate with any brothers who are doing these things. It also goes without saying that we should not associate with such people in the world, any more than is absolutely necessary.

We are in the world and we cannot help that. Jesus did not pray that we should be taken out of the world, but that we should be kept from the evil of the world. In his prayer to his Heavenly Father he said, ”I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”

God promises us a way of escape that we might be able to bear our temptations but we must use our common sense and stay as far away as possible from the temptations that we can avoid.

Let us live the Lord’s prayer in addition to praying it: ”Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”