Sometimes, when we have sinned, we allow our guilt to metastasize into shame and despair. We aren’t fundamentally good people who happen to make a mistake. We’re rotten to the core, irredeemable, incapable of change or growth, condemned to a life of misery and endless woe. We’re on the highway to Hell and there’s no getting off. Except, none of this is true. If we find ourselves on such a highway, there are exits where we can get off. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Our Savior has provided us a way to escape the captivity of sin and to get off at the nearest exit from the highway to Hell. This might not always be easy. Sometimes we’re stuck in the middle of a bumper to bumper traffic jam. Sometimes we keep trying to get over a couple of lanes so we can make it to the exit but those around us keep boxing us in and cutting us off. After all, misery loves company and if we have surrounded ourselves with miserable people, they will do everything that they can to sabotage our efforts to repent and escape from the temptations that surround us. But sometimes the Lord will send us ministering angels to direct traffic and clear a path for us to make it to the next exit safely and quickly. I know that sometimes it feels like we are getting swept along on the highway and there’s no way to get off, but the Lord will always open up an exit for us if we are truly seeking to repent and escape from the temptations that have taken us. I hope we are all constantly working our way to the far right lane so that we can get off at the nearest exit.
