There’s a story going around about two people who called the police after being trapped in a closet for two days. Only it turns out, they weren’t trapped at all. The story is bizarre – the man waited two days to call the police when he clearly had cell phone capabilities the entire time. They also could have opened the door themselves, which begs the question, what on earth were they thinking? Why not get out!? I think drugs were possibly involved, but regardless, it brings up an interesting thought in my mind: how many times are we guilty of the exact same thing?

So often, we allow ourselves to be taken over by temptation and sin. We let Satan get into our hearts and minds and take root, causing addiction, bad habits, and all other kinds of repeated sin. And then, we wallow in it.

I am completely guilty of this, but I am not excusing it anymore. Too often, when it comes to habitual struggles, we excuse it, saying “everyone does it” or “I was born this way” or “that’s my personality.” We give in to the temptation, we allow it to overtake us, and we settle for being in sin, away from God, and away from the church. Only, we don’t accept those last two. We accept the sin. We accept doing it over and over and giving in, but we don’t accept the consequences. We don’t accept being away from God or the discipline God designed for His church to carry out.

It reminds me of the story. Here are two people who are trapped in unsavory conditions, only really, they aren’t. For two days, they accepted that they were, only to find out later that they weren’t. The door was unlocked. There was a way of escape.

Here’s what Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in sin, how long you’ve struggled with a particular sin, or what you think the root of the sin is (personality, born with it, etc). What matters is that there is a way of escape; there is an unlocked door, a way out of Satan’s grip. Now you can sit in the closet for two days anyway, or you can choose to go out of the unlocked door, freeing yourself and getting back to the best life possible.

Sadly, too many people choose to sit in an unlocked closet. They don’t go for the way of escape. They wallow in sin, they claim they can’t change, and that’s their life. It’s unsavory and uncomfortable. It’s dangerous. It’s fatal.

Just know that whatever sin has its claws in your heart at the start of this new year, there is a way of escape. You can conquer the temptation, because this sin isn’t bigger than you. And when it feels like it is, just remember that the sin definitely isn’t bigger than God, the One unlocking the door.

The temptations may be hard. You may have struggled with the same sin for a long time. But now’s the time to conquer. Now’s the time to call for help and get out. Now’s the time to realize the door is unlocked. Get up, get moving, and get out of sin’s hold. You can do it. God promises you can.