There was a story of a little boy named Johnny who kept falling out of bed. Every time he would fall his mother would come in the room and scoop him off the floor and place him back in bed. This kept happening over and over again until the little boy was in tears. He looked into his mother’s face and said, “Mommy, why do I keep falling out of bed and can you make me stop?” His mother replied, “Yes, I can!” And then looked deep into his eyes and said, “Johnny, your problem is that never get far enough into bed, you’re always on the edge, so it’s easy to fall off.”

And it’s the same with some of us Christians. The reason we keep falling into sin or engaging in activities that lead us to sin is because we never get far enough away from the sins that are tempting us…We haven’t hidden ourselves in Christ–we’re always hanging out on the edge and then easily fall into sin. And the torment of the temptation to sin is nothing compared to the consequences. (Re-telling of Ed Louis Cole story.)