'Sometimes the most effective thing you can do to combat temptation is to leave your accountability group for a while and sense a foretaste of the New Jerusalem with your local congregation, singing hymns and songs, eating bread and drinking wine, and hearing the voice of Jesus through the preached Word. As you do so, remember you're part of a transnational, transgenerational, trans-ethnic body of the redeemed. Those singing with you in heaven right now have already been through your struggles. The cloud of witnesses gathers round you, spurring you on in hope. Those round you are likewise groaning for the same redemption for which you long. And before all of you stands Jesus - who was tempted, tested, tortured, and yet is, finally, triumphant. As you perceive his invisible glory, you begin to see what seemed incredible in the wilderness. You will find you'll be able to say, as did writer Flannery O'Connor: "I believe love to be efficacious in the loooong run."'
Russell D Moore, Tempted and Tried, p.189.
