"Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on."
Proverbs 4:15 NASB1995
(Proverbial Self-Control)
Controlling where you go can have a tremendous impact on keeping you from temptation, and further lack of self-control, leading to sin. Speaking of the way of evil, the proverb is emphatic about removing oneself from the evil way. It puts the power and the responsibility at the feet of one - YOU!
We may not all suffer the same temptations but we all have temptations. Learn/Know yours, and do what you can to avoid them. Remove yourself from the situation. In fact, remove yourself from the path that leads to the situation. The more self-control you have in not being in front of a temptation to begin with, the less you’ll have to worry about whether or not you’ll have the self-control to avoid the sin when the temptation is directly in front of you.
Put me in the middle of a liquor store and it will be zero temptation for me to drink. Put an alcoholic in the middle of a liquor store and see what self-inflicted torture of temptation they go through. At the same time, you might be able to put the alcoholic in the middle of a Snickers store and there be no temptation at all. Then you put me in the middle of a Snickers store and see what sort of self-inflicted torture of temptation I go through. Let us be careful about judging/condemning the addictions and temptations of others without considering our own weaknesses and vices.
(Yes, I know alcoholism is not the same as being addicted to sugar. They are not equivalent, and yet, they are both unhealthy/harmful) Even if a temptation may not be sinful, it might still be harmful. Develop self-control to guard and protect yourself.
You can control where you go. That decision will impact so many other things. While there is the very literal sense of choosing where your feet take you, in this day and age with technology we have to consider virtual travel as well. Your feet might not take you to an "adult video store", but you may virtually go there online and engage in sexual immorality all the same. You need safety measures in place to help you maintain self-control online just like you may need in real life.
You can control where you go, and that can control what temptations you may face or not. You can control whether you go to the dance or not. You can control whether you go to the school party or not. You can control if you go with your friends or not (knowing that they might be engaged in sinful, unholy, unrighteous behavior unbecoming a Christian). You can control if you go to be alone with your boy/girl friend or not. You can control if/when you go to the waterpark and expose yourself and/or others to temptations. You can control where you go, and that matters.
Sometimes, when we moan and complain about how difficult it is to have self-control, we may be overlooking the very decision that made it difficult - going there in the first place. Be mindful of the power of the decision of where you go, and realize how much power/control that has over temptations in your life. When it comes to evil desire, temptation, lust, and sin… “Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.”
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