God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
We should not assume that, because God promises to provide a way out of temptation, we have no role in our own rescue. God always provides a way of escape, but He may also require great effort from us. We take advantage of the way of escape God provides by exerting every resource He gives us to fight the enemy… To increase our faith and strengthen our character, God more often allows us to escape temptation by using the means of grace always available to us: conscientiously seeking God’s power and instruction through prayer, meditation on His Word, and the counsel of mature Christians are never passive endeavors.
I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church... Put your finger on any prosperous page in the Church’s history, and [you] will find a little marginal note [that says]: 'In this age [people] could readily see where the Church began and where the world ended.'
