NOTICE, FIRST OF ALL, THAT GOD IS GREATER THAN ANY TEMPTATION.

Frame 1: I will take a drive, but won't go near the grocery 
          store.

Frame 2: I will drive by the grocery store, but will not go in.

Frame 3: I will go in the grocery store, but will not walk down
          the aisle where the Halloween candy is on sale.

Frame 4: I will look at the candy, but not pick it up.

Frame 5: I will pick it up, but not buy it.

Frame 6: I will buy it, but not open it.

Frame 7: Open it, but not smell it.

Frame 8: Smell it, but not taste it.

Frame 9: Taste it, but not eat it.

Frame 10: Eat, eat, eat, eat eat!
          (Neil T. Anderson, VICTORY OVER THE DARKNESS,
            (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), pp. 162-163.) 
             It's hard, isn't it?

  There was an interesting story in the papers last Christmas about a man in Lewes, England who was fired from his job as a trainee in a bakery because he succumbed to temptation and gobbled a Christmas mince pie. Stephen Cooper, 35, was packing pies into boxes and gobbled one that did not fit. He said it surely would have been thrown out anyway. "I know I shouldn't have done it but the temptation was too much," said Cooper. "It doesn't seem fair that I got the sack for just one bite." (Reuter)

There are temptations far worse than food, but it is true that some of us should probably not work in bakeries. It helps to know your own weaknesses. Still, Jesus tells us, God is greater. There is no temptation that can snatch us out of God's hand. And if we pray for help in the face of the Tempter, we can resist. God is greater.

But what if we give in to temptation? What then? Go back and read rule #1: God is greater.