1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you MAY be able to endure it. (Emphasis mine)
Man, when i was in the thick of it, this verse nearly killed my faith. So entrenched was I in my own pride, so highly did I think of myself. When I read that God would give me no temptation too great, I freaked. I had two reactions. Both spawned off of the fact that I believed that my depression was too great for me to handle, and it almost was. Very few humans know what it is like to live on the edge of sanity. Most never get close. They are always a safe distance form the edge. I lived with one foot off for a decade. I kept saying in my head, "God, I can't do this!!!!! Not one more second!!!!" And I said that for ten years. So, obviously I was wrong. But, it felt true.
Back on track, my first reaction was to feel that God existed, but that He hated me deeply. He hated me so completely that despite "my" desire to love Him, He was pushing me away with something I couldn't overcome.
Or, God didn't exist. That was number two. This temptation is too great, therefore God is a liar. Somewhere along the way I was gently shown how false this is. For one, suffering is all throughout the Bible, so I cannot judge God as a liar based on the Bible. I would have to judge it from some other stand point, because I was told I would suffer, no, GUARANTEED it.
I also didn't notice the MAY part. Obviously, in context, we know that we are going to goof. That is what the gospel is about, us being broken as people, and coming to Christ for grace and love that is undeserved. The word MAY is there for a reason. Just like salvation is open to all, not all are going to accept it.
So, if I failed at overcoming the temptations that came from depression, it wasn't that I COULDN'T have done so, I simply DIDN'T. It would not have been God's fault. It would have been mine. I was not being forced to sin or fall away.
It was once something I was trying to use as leverage with God, "God this is too big. You goofed here." It is as if we think there is this list that we can take to God and say, "So, God, I can't handle this, this, or that, and definitely not this." With this falsehood in mind, we are then devastated when those things happen. Because the verse isn't saying that you can tell God what you can and cannot handle. It is God telling you that you can handle it all. There is no list.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you MAY be able to endure it. (Emphasis mine)
Man, when i was in the thick of it, this verse nearly killed my faith. So entrenched was I in my own pride, so highly did I think of myself. When I read that God would give me no temptation too great, I freaked. I had two reactions. Both spawned off of the fact that I believed that my depression was too great for me to handle, and it almost was. Very few humans know what it is like to live on the edge of sanity. Most never get close. They are always a safe distance form the edge. I lived with one foot off for a decade. I kept saying in my head, "God, I can't do this!!!!! Not one more second!!!!" And I said that for ten years. So, obviously I was wrong. But, it felt true.
Back on track, my first reaction was to feel that God existed, but that He hated me deeply. He hated me so completely that despite "my" desire to love Him, He was pushing me away with something I couldn't overcome.
Or, God didn't exist. That was number two. This temptation is too great, therefore God is a liar. Somewhere along the way I was gently shown how false this is. For one, suffering is all throughout the Bible, so I cannot judge God as a liar based on the Bible. I would have to judge it from some other stand point, because I was told I would suffer, no, GUARANTEED it.
I also didn't notice the MAY part. Obviously, in context, we know that we are going to goof. That is what the gospel is about, us being broken as people, and coming to Christ for grace and love that is undeserved. The word MAY is there for a reason. Just like salvation is open to all, not all are going to accept it.
So, if I failed at overcoming the temptations that came from depression, it wasn't that I COULDN'T have done so, I simply DIDN'T. It would not have been God's fault. It would have been mine. I was not being forced to sin or fall away.
It was once something I was trying to use as leverage with God, "God this is too big. You goofed here." It is as if we think there is this list that we can take to God and say, "So, God, I can't handle this, this, or that, and definitely not this." With this falsehood in mind, we are then devastated when those things happen. Because the verse isn't saying that you can tell God what you can and cannot handle. It is God telling you that you can handle it all. There is no list.
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