No longer going east

Michael W. Smith has recorded a song that hits home in my heart every time I hear it. It is entitled "Go West Young Man", and it pictures the age-old dilemma of 'blazing a trail' into sin's path. The words that speak to me the loudest: "When the evil go east, go west young man". A question is posed: "Why must I wander like a cloud, following the crowd", then the need we all have is presented in the words, "Well I don't know but I'm asking for the will to fight." We all need the 'will' to fight, don't we? To resist the desire to head 'east' when evil entices us, instead choosing to head 'west' right into the arms of Jesus. 

The only temptations that you have are the same temptations that all people have. But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can bear. But when you are tempted, God will also give you a way to escape that temptation. Then you will be able to endure it. (I Corinthians 10:13)

All of us face the same temptation to head 'east' - maybe with a different set of 'temptations', but always with the same intent - to draw us away from Jesus' arms. Nothing threatens Satan more than a child of God who is resting secure in the arms of Jesus, determined to head the opposite direction of sin's pull. Jesus told his followers to pray for strength against temptation because he knew we'd all face it at some point. (Luke 22:46) It isn't 'if' temptation will attempt to pull us 'east', but 'when'. We must stand ready to run the opposite direction. James 4:7 reminds us we need to resist the devil and he will flee from us, but wouldn't it be wise for each of us to choose to put as much space between us and evil as possible?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it is necessary to aim above the mark in order to hit the mark. When evil heads 'east', aim high! Sometimes the easiest way to end the struggle with sin in our lives is to change our aim - to aim is good, but maybe we need to aim a little higher. To 'head west' means we not only allow distance between us and sin, but we are also creating additional distance through prayer, the intake of the Word of God, and times of listening to God's still small voice. Scripture reminds us that as far as the east is from the west, so are our sins removed from us. (Psalm 113:12) If God separates the guilt of our sins that far, maybe we should take that as a clue to not only remove temptation far away, but to actually move ourselves far away from sin's pull! Just sayin!