“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). It may be true that we will each face common temptations, but the way to escape may be different for each of us. Consider some examples from the scriptures of righteous disciples who were nonetheless thrown in prison and how they all managed to escape in different ways. Peter, for example, had an angel visit him and unlock all of the doors between him and freedom and led him out quietly with none the wiser. No muss, no fuss, and no drama. Alma and Amulek, on the other hand, escaped their imprisonment in a much more dramatic fashion. The power of God literally shook the walls down, killing all of Alma and Amulek’s tormentors in the process. Joseph of Egypt had to be much more patient with his escape. There was no divine intervention to speed his escape. He had to rely on his good reputation and the faulty memory of someone he had served, but eventually he too escaped. And then there are some, like Joseph Smith, that escaped from prison only through death. God does not love us more or less if He helps us to escape our temptations and addictions and flaws and weaknesses in some instantaneous, dramatic fashion or if he allows us to prove our patience and trust in Him by enduring our captivity for far longer than we had hoped. And for some of us, for certain temptations, we may struggle against them for our entire lives and find our way to escape only through death. However and whenever it happens, if we are faithful and sincere in our efforts to escape our temptations, the Lord will eventually show us the way.
