The Bible is full of promises for those who will trust in God. One of God’s promises is very important for those going through tests and trials. But this promise has good news and bad. And if we don’t understand it, we can make our trials much worse. Perhaps, even last longer.
Today’s Readings:
Ecclesiastes 7
Psalm 103.1-5
Proverbs 24.7-9
1 Corinthians 10.1-18
God’s Promise in Trials
1 Corinthians 10.1-18:
The Good News in God’s Promise
If you have never memorized verse 13, I would encourage you to do so. This verse is one of God’s great promises and is filled with good news and hope!
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
When we go through great difficulties, we often feel isolated and alone. But, as this verse reminds us, the temptations, tests, and trials we undergo are “common to man.” Others have gone through them and have come out the other side and so can we.
God promises that He will “make a way of escape.” Sometimes the way of escape is out of the trial, but more often it is through the trial. Yet, we are “able to bear it” because of His grace.
And “… God is faithful …” No matter what we are going through, God is faithful! He won’t leave us or forsake us but will walk through it with us. He’s also faithful to filter the trial through His hands and not allow it to be more than we can handle without sinning … as long as we keep our eyes on Him and rely on His strength.
But that’s the key; we must keep our eyes on Him and rely on His power. And we must respond obediently. Many of our greatest difficulties arise because when we are in a test or trial, we respond sinfully and find we have only complicated the situation. We risk experiencing the consequences of our own sin and, often, find ourselves struggling with anger, anxiety, guilt, and depression.
Those emotions are like the warning lights on the dashboards of our cars telling us something is not right under the hood (in our hearts).
James’ Advice in Trials
Instead, we should focus on James’ advice:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (Jas. 1.2-4).
I don’t know about you, but I don’t automatically want to be joyful when I’m in the midst of tests or trials! But this passage tells us we can be joyful if we remember that God is using our trials to mature us and make us more like His Son (Rom. 8.29; Jas. 1.3-4).
If you’re struggling to trust God and His promises, you may need to spend some time getting to know Him better. It’s hard to trust someone you don’t know well. One of the best ways to do so is to learn more about His eternal attributes.
Wayne Mack’s book It’s Not Fair!: Finding Hope When Times Are Tough is a very readable and powerful resource on the subject. It can help us come to know God more deeply by learning about His attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, love, and justice. When we know Him, really know Him, we’ll trust Him more fully and find great encouragement.
But It’s Not Fair! isn’t just for those in the midst of a trial, it’s for all of us as we face the ups and downs of life and struggle to understand what God is doing!
Now for the bad news.
The Bad News
I said that 1 Corinthians 10.13 also holds some bad news.
The bad news is that since God has promised no trial will be too much for us to handle in a godly way if we choose to sin in response to a trial (with anger, bitterness, worry, an unbiblical divorce, etc. …), it’s just that … a choice! No one and no circumstance can make us sin.
So let’s pray that God will give us His grace to choose to respond His way as we face the ups and downs and tests and trials of life (Heb. 4.16).
Today’s Other Readings:
Ecclesiastes 7:
Funerals and Parties
There are so many nuggets in this chapter! Let’s start with verse 2. What does it mean when it says, “better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting”?
Solomon is saying it’s better to go to a funeral than to a party because a funeral causes us to examine our lives and think about our own eternity, while a party often distracts us and keeps us from looking honestly at ourselves and our relationships with God.
This chapter also talks about God’s sovereignty and how God’s plans and purposes cannot be thwarted (vv. 12-14).
And Solomon encourages us to do right, even though in a sin-cursed world, bad things happen to the good and the evil. He reminds us that the laws of sowing and reaping warn us that it is better to do right. Peter echoed that truth in the New Testament:
For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil (1 Pet. 3.17).
I hope you are enjoying and gleaning a lot from the book of Ecclesiastes. I always enjoy reading through it.
Psalm 103.1-5:
Worship & Thankfulness
Again and again, we are instructed in Scripture to bless and praise the name of God and to be thankful. This is a great psalm to include in your personal worship, as well as, corporate worship.
And now to the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 24.7-9:
Anger, Scoffing & Gossip
Verse 9 in today’s reading says that a “scoffer is an abomination to men.”
And Proverbs 22.24 says we’re to, “Make no friendship with an angry man …”
Psalm 1.1 says we’re to walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful.
Proverbs 26.22 tells us that the words of a gossip are like “tasty trifles” that affect our hearts.
And Paul warned us:
Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’ (1 Cor. 15.33 NASB).
There are some people we are better off loving from afar. We should pray for them and treat them with kindness, but we should not develop close relationships with them. It’s far too easy to fall into the same habits of anger, criticism, scoffing, and gossip and to end up reflecting that to a world that is all too quick to call Christians hypocrites (sometimes rightfully so).
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we will talk about the importance of examining our own lives and look at 21 dating and premarital red flags. We’ll also talk about holiness, biblical love, and how God intended sex within marriage to be “red hot.”
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. You might also like to check out our YouTube channel.
If this post spoke to you, I would love it if you would share it on your favorite social media platform.
And if you don’t already have a copy, you might want to purchase a copy of my eBook, 10 Benefits of Keeping a Spiritual Journal. It’s available on Kindle or in paperback (the paperback has 31 days of blank journaling pages with prompts to help you get started).
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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