By Steve Hearts
In spite of my strong upbringing in God’s Word, my spiritual life continues to be a perpetual learning experience—especially when it comes to the understanding and interpretation of God’s promises. Many of these “exceeding great and precious promises”1have been stored in my memory banks since I was a child. And with the passage of time, many of them have taken on new meaning as the Lord regularly does away with my preconceived ideas and interpretations and “guides [me] into all truth.”2
One such promise is found in 1 Corinthians 10:13: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”3
For quite some time I took great comfort in this promise, which, as I understood it, assured me that I would be allowed to experience only tests and trials that I knew I would be able to handle—sort of like the way I get to choose the level of physical exercise that best suits me.
Because of that frame of mind, one thing which I was sure I could never bear, and therefore thought I’d not have to experience, was bereavement. When asked how I would handle loss, were I to experience it, I’d simply shrug off the question. Eventually the unthinkable happened and my mother passed away from cancer.
It seemed as though God had deliberately deceived me. Hadn’t I been promised that I wouldn’t be tempted above what I was able? Why, then, was loss itself now staring me directly in the face? As hurt as I was over this, I was unwilling to contend with God. So I simply limped my way through life for a while. First Corinthians 10:13 was a verse I stayed away from. I pretty much considered it a broken promise.
One day while going about my duties, I was listening to an album of scriptures in song. I’d forgotten that the lyrics of one of the songs on this CD happened to be from 1 Corinthians 10:13. So when that song suddenly came on, I felt as though I’d been stung by a wasp. I was grateful to be alone at the time. Tears which had remained pent up inside me for a while gushed out in a torrent that could not be stopped.
I could no longer continue what I was doing. I turned off the music and allowed myself to break down. In the silence of an empty, quiet room, I demanded to know why the Lord had not kept His promise to me. Then I calmed myself and waited for His reply. It came immediately. His voice was gentle and comforting:
“Of course I kept My promise to you! But you have not understood it correctly. By promising not to tempt you above what you are able to bear, I meant that nothing would come your way that both you and I couldn’t handle together. If you were allowed to experience only the things you could handle on your own, then why would you need Me? I am your ‘way of escape’—escape from the impossibility of having to do it on your own. There is no burden, trial, or difficulty that we can’t bear together.”
When I was a kid, I often tried to prove myself smarter than I actually was, and had to be put in my place. Now the Lord was lovingly putting me in my place once more. Yet, humbling as it was, the truth of His words provided me with a sense of renewal and relief I hadn’t known in quite some time.
Half my problem was that in attempting to decide what I was and was not capable of handling I’d totally left Jesus out of the picture. But without Him, how could Paul have been able to proclaim, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”?4 Or how could the three Hebrew children in the book of Daniel have come out of the fiery furnace unharmed if “the son of God” had not walked through it with them?5 Neither they nor Paul was any less human than I am. Jesus was right there with them through it all, and He longed to also be right here with me and help me through my loss and grief.
Did I take Him up on his offer? You bet I did. And He worked wonders to help me come through and rise above my grief and pain. Now I can truly say with Paul, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”6
Today, instead of presenting the Lord with a list of things I wish to be spared from, I simply tell Him, “Whatever I’m meant to experience, I want You to experience it with me.” I’m fully convinced that there is nothing that He and I cannot handle together.
What is more, He, and He alone, is my way of escape—not escape from the difficulties and tests, but from having to endure life’s trials singlehandedly. I can take refuge and shelter in Him any time, no matter what’s happening around me. It isn’t that I won’t have to experience the “temptation,” rather, with Him as my “way of escape,” I will “be able to bear it.”
1 2 Peter 1:4 KJV.
2 John 16:13 KJV.
3 KJV.
4 Philippians 4:13 KJV.
5 See Daniel 3:25.
6 Galatians 2:20 NKJV.
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