Blog #9: The Monster & the Room
If you claim to trust God, then you better be prepared to bite and not just bark. It’s fun to sing about trusting God in church, but if that trust evaporates when you leave through the doors of church, you haven’t trusted in Him at all-you’ve only sung a pretty song. It’s not about flowery affirmations of faith that matter either, it’s our readiness to obey when God calls is into action. You simply cannot say—in good faith—you trust God to help you flee temptation if you are simultaneously treating it like you’re a child playing with fire. The wages of sin is death isn’t just a cool one-liner it’s fact (and a verse in the Bible). Picture this: You’re in a room with one door and a monstrous beast stands growling at you. The terror is real. You’re shaking in your shoes, and rightfully so. Now imagine Christ steps in the room, opens the door that you didn’t see, and commands you to escape. The only thing left is for you to walk through that door. Many of us are faced with that choice and stand frozen. I’ve done it too many times. We beg God to deliver us, He offers it, and then we liner as though the monster were more trustworthy than Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
God’s escape route is always open, but He won’t drag you out kicking and screaming. You must choose to trust Him and walk through the door He opens. It’s your choice whether or not you stay to dance with the devil or flee to the safety of Jesus. Another horrible misconception among Christians is the belief that being weak disqualifies us from God’s favor. It’s in our weakness that God works most powerfully. We seem to have forgotten the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness"
It’s easy to think that God isn’t helping us but it’s actually in those moments where God has only just begun. Our weakness isn’t the issue here though, it’s our refusal to let God be strong in us. Before I became a believer, I lived a life that was very self-destructive. I pursued relationships that degraded my soul, filling the void of loneliness with fleeting pleasures like pornography and sex. I surrounded myself with sin, and then I had the audacity to wonder why God felt distant. This wasn’t only a case of ignorance—it was rebellion. We must stop pretending that we can invite God into our lives while actively locking Him out of our hearts. There was a beautiful irony in the very moment when I realized I had nothing left, no strength, no love, no friends—that was when God began to work. It’s genuinely so obvious it makes me smile when I think about it. Slowly, and without my conscious realization, He was drawing me to Himself. It wasn’t instant like a lightning bolt. But bit by bit, the pieces of my life began to come together. What changed? My circumstances? No, not immediately. What changed was my submission to Him, the recognition that I could not save myself. It was His grace that sustained me, and it is His grace that continues to do so.
Now, there’s another dangerous idea we should dismantle: the idea that God’s help is unconditional in the sense that we may continue in sin without consequence. God’s grace is not a license to wallow in sin while expecting Him to bail us out, and we’re also called to sin no more. He doesn’t just command us to trust Him—He commands us to follow Him. We can’t claim to trust God and refuse to follow His lead, that would make us no better than someone who gets the instructions for building a car but insists on assembling it without tools. The result? Not a car, and honestly, what would be the result?
We trust God to lead us out of sin, but we must act accordingly because “Faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). We cannot just sit passively and expect God to magically transport us to holiness. It’s called sanctification. The battle against sin is real, and we must flee temptation as though our very souls depend on it because in fact, they literally do. Failing to pursue that holiness hinders the transformative work of God’s grace in our lives. His grace still remains, but our refusal to grow prevents us from fully experiencing the sanctifying power of His grace. Don’t get it twisted, this doesn’t mean perfection—not yet, at least. That comes later, when we are with Him. (Don’t get me excited) In the here and now, our fight is to resist the sin that clings so closely and to lay hold of the grace that strengthens us. We stumble, yes, but God’s grace is sufficient to catch us, and if we refuse to even take a step, we cannot expect to reach the end of the journey. So just to be clear, trusting God is not an abstract concept; it’s a daily, practical decision to obey Him. If you are praying for deliverance from temptation, but continue to place yourself in the very situations that lead you to sin, you’re not trusting God—you’re mocking Him and disregarding His grace. Galatians 6:7 warns us:
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap”
I was genuinely convicted of this not long ago. You’re asking Him to open a door while you chain yourself to the floor. Don’t be surprised when the monster continues to growl. Instead, pray for the courage to act, to walk through the doors God opens, and to flee the sin that seeks to devour you. You cannot fight this fight on your own, and you aren’t meant to. The strength to overcome comes not from within, but from the grace of Christ. And if we are to live in His grace, we must live in obedience. This is not the cheap grace that promises us wealth and prosperity in exchange for piety. This is the grace that promises us something far greater: that we will be conformed to the image of Christ, made holy as He is holy. The path is definitely not easy, nor is it instantaneous. But His grace is sufficient for today, and it will be sufficient for tomorrow.
Now, will you trust Him enough to walk through the door He opened? Or will you remain, chained to your own sin, blaming God for your refusal to act?
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:13-14