I remember an incident from many years ago that makes me laugh still to this day. I was minding my own business buying groceries. Ahead of me was a woman with a little boy tagging along behind her. She was going about her business of filling her cart with groceries, not really paying much attention to her son. He was also paying no attention to her. He was just following his mom. At one point, he turned around to hang onto my grocery cart without looking back to see who was pushing it. As we walked along, I knew what was about to happen. And when he turned around and saw me instead of his mother, suddenly nothing was right in his world. I was not the person he was expecting to see. He screamed and cried, which caught his mom’s attention. Then he ran back to the safety of his mom’s arms and all was right with him.
In that brief second that he was suspended between fear and surprise, he didn’t know what to do. He was too young to figure out what was happening. All he expected was to see his mom when he turned around. And I wasn’t his mom. He wasn’t expecting to see a total stranger. When ahead of me, I could see his mom and knew exactly what was going to happen if he turned around and looked at me. And then he did.
If this little boy had continued to hang onto my cart and trudge along with me, his mother would soon have a problem. She would come looking for him, and he would have to return to her. I held no ownership over this child, nor did I want to. It would have been very inappropriate. He was his mother’s, and his mother was his. And that’s the way it was meant to be. I was not meant to be a party to their excursion.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
I had never heard the phrase “situational agency” until recently. I didn’t know the meaning of it, so I asked AI to define it and provide examples. Here’s what I learned. According to AI, situational agency refers to the capacity of an individual to act and make meaningful choices within the specific constraints and opportunities of a given situation. Clear as mud, huh? Basically, we can choose to act or resist within the boundaries of our immediate circumstances.
This definition sits clearly within the confines of choosing to sin or choosing not to sin when faced with a temptation. We have the power to choose how we deal with an “opportunity” to sin or to walk away from it. We aren’t powerless when it comes to sinful temptations. We can refuse to submit to the temptation. God gives us the autonomy to give into those temptations, yet we don’t have to. As children of God, we are made new when the stain of sin and the desire to sin is removed.
When we find ourselves near sin, we must run even harder and faster to the safety of our Heavenly Father. We don’t want to get caught up in sin or even be influenced by it in any way. We must keep our eyes on our Savior and not turn back without looking to see whose sinful cart we’ve attach ourselves to. We can muster the strength and will to push back against Satan’s schemes.
Psalm 1 tells us that we have a choice when it comes to sinning. We can choose to walk the path of sinners, or we can stand solid in our fear of the Lord. We can say no when tempted to sin. We don’t have to spend time with people who act in a wicked manner, tempting us to join them. We don’t have to accompany someone who is on a path of self destruction. We can stand alone in our faith. We can resist.
As the holidays have now passed and we were tempted to eat too many sweets, we always know that we can resist them. We don’t have to eat too many cookies. We can refuse them. And as believers in Christ, we have become a new person. Our old life is gone. We have been forgiven of our sins, so why would we want to sin again? We don’t have to.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord , and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1:1-6
The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
We must pray for God’s grace to help us resist temptations. We must ask God to guard our hearts and minds from being prideful or haughty. We can resist Satan’s advances with God’s help. And above all, we must pursue God at all times.
The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light. ~Oswald Chambers
Mercy for the Day 