Stopgap Measures

In the final chapter of Nehemiah, we see his account of salesmen coming to Jerusalem on the sabbath day. Jews were not supposed to be buying and selling on the sabbath, but I assume because the salesmen were there, many did.

Nehemiah banishes the salesmen and orders the gates of the city closed during the sabbath. This stopgap measure protected the Israelites from themselves. If they could not withstand the temptation of buying on the sabbath, Nehemiah would put the salesmen out of reach.

Eventually, Nehemiah goes a step further and threatens the salesmen for even coming to the city on the sabbath:

Nehemiah 13:21 KJV
Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath.

God does the same for us. In the New Testament, we are told:

1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

God will make a way of escape from any temptation that is too much for us. God can shut the enemy outside the walls of our mind, and he can banish him from even coming near us, just as Nehemiah did for his fellow Israelites.

God can provide these stopgap measures Himself or use a minister as He did with Nehemiah. Either way, He will give you a way of escape when the temptation is too much to bare.