By David ReayWednesday 3 Jul 2019LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (THE MESSAGE)
It is easy and tempting to misread this familiar text. We can misunderstand it so as to think it says whenever hard times come, God will give us an escape route. Some translations do tell us God provides a ‘way out’. But the meaning of that phrase is more of a ‘way through’.
It doesn’t seem to be God’s way that he has us sidestep troubles. Tests and temptations come to all, not just Christians, and certainly not just those who see themselves as weak Christians. We are not tested or tempted because we are substandard but because we are human and part of the ongoing battle between Jesus and the evil one.
We may protest that this text says we aren’t pushed past our limit whereas many would say they are way beyond the limit. But perhaps our ‘limit’ and God’s ‘limit’ are different. The promise is not that we will never feel at the end of our tether or that the pain will instantly dissolve. The promise is that God will sustain us in all circumstances. The fact that we survive and endure is evidence of that, albeit uncomfortable evidence.
Perhaps the truth is that when we reach what we believe to be our limits, God steps in to expand and extend them.
Blessings
David