The Common Temptations

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First Corinthian 10:13 says, “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 to escape, that ye may be able to bear it”. 

     Every had those days when one thing after another happens?  After the stay in the hospital duirng the first of November, came home to find the computer dead and h ad to replace it.  After this most recent stay in the hospital, came back and now the phone won’t  charge so probably will have to be replaced.  Things just don’t last very long adn h ave to be replaced by something else.  James reminds us that we are plagued with manifold temptations, that is, more than one at a time. As we receive the temptations, or as we might sometimes refer to them as “trials” in our Christian life, God is still faithful in the midst of all things.

     We are also reminded in the last verse of Second Peter, that we are to grow in God’s grace.  This is something that is going on day by day, hour by hour, and is necessary in the life of every believer.  It is like we are being under construction and there are orange barrels around us signifying that we are in the process of growing day by day.  It is called,”sanctification.”  Each day finds us being more separated  unto God than the day before.  We might think, “I just can’t take any more.”  The passage above however, exhorts us that God knows our limits and He is not going to pille more on us than we can handle.  We may think that we just can’t take any more but then realize that we got through yesterday and we will undoubtedly get through today also.  I recall how things often would begin on a certain day with a broken shoe lace, then a dead battery and then a traffic jam.  In the midst of all of these occurrences, God is working to perfect certain qualities or characteristics as described in Galatians as the “fruit of the Spirit.”  One of the most difficult of those characteristics is that of longsuffering or “patience.”  We no  longer ask God for patience as we are also exhorted that “tribulation” worketh patience.  When  you pray for patience, God gives you tribulation as the result of the tribulation will be an increase in your patience.  As always, God supplies the “avenue” of escape or the say out, or provides the answer to our problems.  It is a learning experience where we learn that God is always there no matter what re the issues that are going on in our lives. So, how will we get through today’s problems?  We trust God for the avenue of release.  As always, it come back to our being faithful to Him as He is faithful to us.  Our period of growth just went up an inch or two.  Praise God today for His faithfulness in all of our problems.