One of my favourite verses in the Bible contains a pertinent message for this first day of Lent.
1 Cor 10.13
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength. But with the testing He will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.
Ash Wednesday reminds Christians that we are in a fierce spiritual battle. Just as Jesus was tempted, we have an enemy tempting us away from Him. Wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, parts of Africa and elsewhere are all too evident. We can’t miss them. But we do often miss the battle raging over every disciple, every soul, as the devil seeks to destroy and undermine our faith.
There are three bits of good news in this verse:
First:
1. God has no favourites
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.
In a time of trial, there is such a tendency to believe that we are the only ones who have ever had this thrown at us, and that therefore no-one does or can understand. We can feel so terribly alone and isolated in those moments and wonder whether God has forgotten us and focused His attention on others next door.
But we can resist that thought by believing that nothing that happens to us is new or an uncommon experience. And in that sense God has no favourites. He does not protect some and ignore others, indiscriminately. There are trials, tests and temptations for all.
It is a startling thing to recall that this was true of Jesus. He was tempted in all points just as we are, and yet of course without sin. He knows and understands all our testings and trials and is able to sympathise with our weaknesses. Hebrews 4.15
It’s a huge encouragement to know we are not alone in our testing moments.
2. God knows our limits
The second part of the verse is even more encouraging, because it tells us that God will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength. We might find this hard to believe at certain moments in our own lives, when the pressure is on and we feel we are about to crack or sink, or for others we see being sorely tested for their faith in God, by an illness, or the unjust action of another person, bullying for example. It can all seem or feel just too much, a step too far, and terribly unfair.
I’m sure that Job must have entertained such thoughts. And the early Christians likewise, when they were being persecuted for their faith. And similarly, some of our sisters and brothers in parts of the world today, who are imprisoned, tortured, and even martyred, simply because they bear the name of Christ and refuse to deny Him. We might easily conclude that God seems to have forgotten His promise and taken His eye off the ball.
But God is faithful, says Paul. He keeps His Word and we can trust that He knows our limits better than we know them ourselves. And He will not let us be tested beyond what we can bear. God knows our limits.
3. God leads us through
And if parts 1 and 2 are not encouraging enough to sustain us in a time of trial, then part 3 surely will. God is able to provide a way out, a way of escape, or as the Greek original has it, an exodus, literally a way out. We are intended to make the connection to the OT story. It seemed quite impossible for the Israelites to be able to escape from their hard task masters in Egypt. No way could they get out, humanly speaking. But God provided an extraordinary way, by means of the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, the food and drink in the wilderness and the journey to the promised land. He opened up a way out for them, an exodus.
In the very moment of testing, God does not abandon us, or leave us to battle through on our own, or even remove the testing, but provides a way out, so that we may be able to endure it. He does not take away the testing, but provides a way out.
What is that way? It’s the way of the cross, of prayer, of Scripture and fellowship with fellow believers and that great cloud of witnesses.
May we so know Him, that whatever the testing along our path, we do not stumble or stop in our tracks, but rather prove Him in our experience to be the God He has revealed Himself to be, a God who has no favourites, who knows our limits and who leads us through to what He has in store for us next. To Him be all the glory.
Bishop Julian Henderson
President of CEEC
This was first published on the GSFA website.
