Tuesday, August 16th

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is 1 Chronicles 16, Psalm 42, Psalm 44, 1 Corinthians 10:1-18

I have a couple of different thoughts about our Corinthians passage.

First I wanted to quote a devotional written by Sandy, an online friend of mine....

No temptation has seized 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 up under it. 1 Cor 1:13

This scripture is usually the one quoted right before someone says, ‘God never gives you more than you can handle’ we’ve all heard this.Most of us have probably said it more than once.

It’s usually trotted out with other ‘useful’ phrases to be said when someone is really overwhelmed, struggling, scared…ect. But this scripture doesn’t say God won’t give us more than we can handle. It says we won’t be tempted beyond what we can bear. That’s a whole bundle of different.

God gives me more than I can handle on a fairly regular basis…and no, I don’t mean my herd of kids. What I mean is no where in the Word does it say, “Thou shalt handle thine own business” “Thou wilt never be overwhelmed with the struggles of the world”

We all know there is trouble in this world. We all know there are days that are hard, scary, overwhelming. For us to say that God never gives us more than we can handle implies that we don’t need to rely on Him for our strength….and I think we can all agree that’s just not so. The temptation spoken of in 1 Cor 10:13 comes when our circumstances tempt us to succumb to bitterness, anger, hatred.

God overwhelms us on purpose. Not to punish us, or because He doesn’t love us, but because He does love us ever so much. If we weren’t drowning in the circumstances surrounding us, we would never reach up for His help.

I am overwhelmed right now. I know there are many others of us who are overwhelmed right now too, and our overwhelming circumstances are in front of us right now to push us towards God. To teach us to turn to Him, lean on Him, rest with Him. He teaches us to share our burdens with other Christians, my friend calls other Christians ‘God with skin on’. I just love that!

If you’re overwhelmed, scared, worried; drowning in circumstances that are way too much for you to handle, then stop trying to handle them alone. God is right next to you, hands held out, telling you, “Give me your burden. I am your rest and refuge”

There are many things that are too much for us, but nothing is to much for our awesome God.

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens. Psalm 68

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28

Acts 26:27 says "I will protect you..."
Isaiah 66:13 says "I will comfort you..."
Leviticus 26:6 says "I will give you peace..."
Jeremiah 29:12 says "...I will listen to you."
Isaiah 46:4 says "...I will carry you..."
Isaiah 41:10 says "...I will strengthen you..."
Matthew 11:28 says "...I will give you rest..."
and
Genesis 31:3 Reminds us that "...I will be with you.

I love you, O LORD, my strength.

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:1-2

That was a great illustration of what that verse is NOT saying.

Then I also took a look at one of John MacArthur's many sermons on this passage and found this very interesting. I'm hoping I can summarize it for you.

First of all, there are two things that limit our liberty in Christ. First is love, like Tammi discussed the other day. The second is the danger of living too close to the edges as we live out this liberty. You cannot continually expose yourself to immorality without having it eventually affect you, and drawing you in, until you become disqualified for God's service (like the Israelites in the desert).

I think that is such an important reminder. So often, the question we want to know is - where is the line? How far can I go and still not be sinning?

How God must grieve the attitude in such questions!

The question should be - how can I protect my purity? How can I improve my relationship with God? How can I accurately reflect Jesus to a watching world? How can I glorify God in this situation?

MacArthur goes on to explain a bit more about temptations and overcoming them.

First, he explains that the key is to keep tests/trails as tests/trials and not allow them to become temptations.

For example - if you're going through a financial shortage, that's a test. But when you begin to think about cheating on your income tax in order to get through this financial shortage, that's a temptation.

To sum it up, beloved, is simple. You're going to have tests. They're going to come in your life. Just keep them tests, will you, and don't let them become temptations. And to do that you have to endure. And to endure, you pray and you trust God's purposes and you lean on Jesus Christ and focus on what He went through. (emphasis mine)

One really neat example that he gives is that when Jesus was arrested, He made sure that none of the disciples were arrested because He knew that they were not ready to handle it.

Some of them would have totally lost their faith if they had been captured then. Some of them would have fallen down flat. They would have been spiritually defunct. They would have wiped out. So, Jesus says they aren't ready to handle this. You can't touch them. He never let those guys get into a trial that would bring out a temptation that they couldn't handle.

Do you want to know something interesting? Out of those eleven, as best we know from church history, ten of them died as martyrs. One of them in exile. All of them went through the persecution, the imprisonment, the martyrdom that Jesus kept them from but they didn't go through it until they were ready to handle it. Do you understand that? This is one of the great illustrations of the personal attention that Jesus gives His own. And when it says that He will never let you get into a trial that could turn into a temptation that would bring you into sin because you couldn't handle it, then that's exactly what it means. Boy, that's exciting, isn't it?

There's a lot of great stuff in that sermon, so if you have the time, read/listen to the whole thing!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 45-47, 1 Corinthians 10:19-33