God is Faithful
1 Corinthians 10:13
NIV – No Temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful: he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it.
ICB – The only temptations that you have are the temptations that all people have. But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, God will also give you a way to escape that temptation. Then you will be able to stand it.
We all face challenges, but this verse promises us that we are never alone in those challenges. The enemy wants you to believe you are alone in your struggles. He whispers lies saying that you’re the only one that struggles with that, or no one else is as bad as you. I know this because he has whispered those same lies to me. The enemy loves to accuse and isolate us. But, even when we are physically distant we do not have to be relationally, emotionally or spiritually isolated.
So what can we learn from these verses?
1- We are never alone! Trials and tests are common to all people. It can be so easy to think that you are the only one to struggle with ______(fill in the blank). But the truth is, someone has already faced that thing and someone else will face it again, in the future.
2- God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle. God knows your strength more than you do. When an athlete trains, they are putting their muscles under tension. The athlete pushes just a little bit harder or lifts heavier weights than they think they can. They discover that they can handle it. God controls the pressure; it will never be more than you can handle. But, you have to believe the third thing.
3 – God provides the grace to overcome. He provides “a way out”. What is that escape? It is dependence on the Lord. All throughout the Bible we read that God strips away all human support so that we learn that HE is enough. “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble” (Ps.46:1). We will only discover that God can hold and we will never discover that until everything else has been taken away. When all human means are striped away, we begin to discover that we are unshakable in Christ. He himself is the way of escape. That is why he puts us through pressures and testings.
Friends, this is why community is so important to stay rooted in Christ and connected to the body. We need to realize we are not alone in our struggles. Someone else has struggled with the same thing you may be struggling with right now. And truth be told, someone else will struggle with that same thing in the future. That is why we need each other to encourage each other and hold each other up when we are in the midst of a struggle. More importantly than having a community, we have The Lord. The Lord never plays favorites. His promises and his word is just as true for me as it for you and as it is for the next women.
Lets rebuke the lies of the enemy and grab hold tight to the truth that the Lord is with us in every season and every challenge.
Blessings,
Cheryl