#DailyDevotion You Can Trust God To Deliver You From Your Trials & Temptations
1 Cor. 10:12-13 12So if you think you stand, be careful that you don’t fall. 13You haven’t been tempted more than you could expect. And you can trust God. He will not let you be tested more than you can stand. But when you are tested, He will also make a way out so that you can bear it.
The Israelites saw the plagues in Egypt. They walked through the Red Sea on dry land. They saw the glory of the LORD on Mt. Sinai and heard the voice of the LORD give them the Ten Commandments. They saw the wonders of the LORD take care of them in the wilderness and they still messed up royally. We heard the good news of Jesus Christ. All you have is a promise. It is with this understanding and this context St. Paul tells us, “if you thing you stand, be careful that you don’t fall.”
Now I guess the Israelites had this going against them. They were a stiff-necked people. They did not gain any humility during this time it appears. When we come to the Gospel, how else do we come to it but in humility, if you have rightly understood the Gospel. We came to the LORD Jesus Christ with nothing but our sins and fallen nature, unable to save ourselves. We had nothing to offer him that wasn’t his anyway. Yet in his great mercy, he became man. He took our sins upon himself. He became the atoning sacrifice and propitiation for our sins that we might become the righteousness of God. He asks us to put our faith in him that he has indeed saved us from our sins and given us the kingdom of God.
Nevertheless, even though we have become the children of God through faith in this promise, we still have the sinful flesh, live in a sinful world, which tempts us to not believe God’s promises and to reject his loving mercy. Paul tells us we can trust God. He will not lest us be tempted more than we can stand. In the context of the Israelites in the wilderness there were two types of testing. The first testing was from the LORD himself, to see if the Israelites would trust him and do all that he said. This testing is never to tempt us to do evil but to trust God and do good. It is like the discipline of the LORD Hebrews mentions in chapter 12. So when the people were tired, hungry or thirsty, when he brought their enemies against them, would they trust the LORD would take care of them or not? The other sort of testing is not from God but from the devil. He tempts us to sin, to turn from God’s will for us in our lives and to fulfill the desires of the flesh. He tempts us to selfish, self-centered, to reject loving God and loving neighbor and do what we think will make us the most fulfilled despite God telling us is will not. He tempts us to reject the warnings of our conscience, perverse as it, itself is.
Paul encourages us to trust God in both of these testings unlike the Israelites who grumbled against the LORD and who fell into idol worship and sexual sin. He promises we will not be tested more than we could expect nor more than you could stand. We have the Holy Spirit now indwelling us. He gives us the power to trust God and to reject sin. He does not leave us to ourselves. We are promised when we are tested he will provide a way out. So whether we are experiences trying times or enticements from the devil, our flesh and the world, turn to the LORD and put your trust in him and not in yourselves. He will be your rock and shield. And should you fail, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ whose blood cleanses us from every sin, stain and blemish.
Heavenly Father, grant us your Holy Spirit that we may trust in you when tried so we may not fail like the Israelites in the wilderness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.