Temptations we ought not to face

This morning after I left the chiropractor in monsoon like conditions, I went to see how Richard Gray was doing (He had a heart attack last week if you didn't know:-) Please pray for him and his family. He is doing better). Upon leaving St. Vincents I noticed that all the roads had standing water on them. I finally maneuvered my way to Baptist Hospital. As I left baptist, I had that compelling draw for some Starbucks espresso. As I made my way down through San Marco it reminded me of youth camp this summer when we went down the Ocoee River. I promise there were rapids! Driving ever so carefully through much standing water, I thought, "Is an espresso really worth all this?" I seriously thought about it... OK so what made me turn around was a cop with his lights on directing people away from the flooded street ahead. As I headed back, I noticed the streets getting worse! Down one side street I saw a car with water up to the car door handles! I immediately thought of the potential phone call, "Uh Amber, my truck is floating down Lasalle Street, I may be a little late getting home tonight." My next thought was I've got to get to higher ground FAST! I made it to the on ramp to I-95, then safely to I-10. I look at the news on my computer this afternoon and I see the headline that reads, "Flooding closes I-95 at I-10." I barely made it out.

I say all that to make a point about today's Oswald Chambers. It was about temptation, as is the next few days. He said that many of us suffer from temptations that we don't have to suffer from, simply because we haven't let God life us to a higher plane. My heart went out to the one guy up to his thighs in water pushing his car. I would have helped him but I can barely walk right now myself... and it was raining. All I could think was how these people wished they were on higher ground. If they were they wouldn't have been swept away by the flood.

How many times are we tempted because we aren't where we should be? We should be at a higher plane facing different kinds of temptations. Are you doing what you should be doing? Are you doing what God wants you to do, or what you feel like doing. At the lower level of what "we feel like doing", we face temptations we ought not to face. Remember if David had have been at war where kings usually were at that time, he wouldn't have faced the temptation that set him on a downward spiral (2 Samuel 11).

Today let me challenge you to take the high road, It's here that we are obedient to God, doing the things on his agenda, not ours. If we would just take this road then we would allow God to "place us on a higher plane", and be spared from temptations we need not to face.