Knowing and loving God are going to require your strength. Paul described it many times as a “race,” and you are straining to get to the finish line. Sometimes what is happening to you is just another pop quiz. But approaching food today without understanding the dynamics of what we are talking about is like taking a college class and spending your time daydreaming or taking naps. The next thing you know, all the students around you are turning in their exam papers, while you did not even know there was an exam! Failing the test is inevitable.

It would be so much simpler, we think, if God could just warn us: “My dear children, you are going to be tested today by Satan, and lured and enticed by your own flesh at 1:15 this afternoon with chocolate cheesecake—and I want you to stop when you are full and wrap up the rest of it. Now get yourself ready for 1:15 today.” Too bad it does not work that way. I would have passed many more college pop quizzes if I had known exactly what the test was about and when it would be given. As it was, I had to stay awake. I had to stay alert so as to be ready when the professor decided to give me an exam.