“Faithful God, Don’t Allow Me To Be Tempted Beyond What I Can Bear!”

“Faithful God, Don’t Allow Me To Be Tempted Beyond What I Can Bear!”(I Cor.10:12-13).
History provides lessons from the past to be used as yardsticks for the present. The goat told the dog, “What you have just seen and are barking all around, I saw it long ago but chose to be silent.” Nothing is new! For “as it was in the beginning, and it’s now, and ever shall be, world without end…”
The things that happened to the past generations “were written down as warnings for us…”(I Cor.10:1-11). So before we become arrogant and boastful of being upright we must be careful!
To this end, Paul writes,“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has siezed you except what is common to man. 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 that you can stand under it.”
Horatio Richmond Palmer captured this so well in song:“Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin; Each victory will help you some other to win; Fight manfully onward; dark passions subdue; Look ever to Jesus, he will carry through. Ask the Saviour to help you, Comfort, strengthen, and keep you; He is willing to help you, He will carry you through…”
Temptation is in the order of things; that is why Jesus was tempted. It is yielding to temptation that is sin. The Greek word translated as “temptation” can also mean “testing.” Temptation like desire is like looking at an object that has the injunction, “Look but don’t touch.” To be constantly located at that place where you must look at the object without touching is testing or temptation. But when one starts fixing one’s gaze intently upon the object for long, be sure that evil desire is staging a coup d’etat on the heart. Once evil desire takes the upper hand, before you know it, you have touched(sinned).
Do not later on say, “It was temptation “, “It is the work of the devil!”
When we are tempted, God is faithful and cannot allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. In the testing of Job, when it got to the point where Job may not have endured anymore, God asked Satan to stop. And when Satan stops, God takes over. When God takes over, he provides a way out so that we can stand under the burden of our testings.
When we become so weak that we cannot withstand the storms anymore, the Lord assures,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”(II Cor.12:9a).
Let us therefore at all times look to the Lord to provide a way out so that we can stand up under any testing or temptation.
Weekend prayer: Faithful God, do not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can bear. Thank you for mercy and grace in Jesus Christ. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev. Babila Fochang.