So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.** 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 (NIV)**
King David rightly pleads to the Lord his God – as we should as well - in Psalms 139:23-24 (NIV): “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” We too should desire for the Holy Spirit to consistently search and test our own hearts – as a refiner tests metals - pointing out things in us that make Him sad and break our relationship with Him. Our hearts can be so deceitful and deluded, Amen? The Holy Spirit is ever the Gentleman and the constant Comforter as well, but He will never force His ways upon us – it is our choice. We are not robots. And His ways are perfect and pleasing even though perhaps extraordinarily hard and perhaps, sadly, against what our hearts may strongly desire. Remember our hearts are deceitful beyond cure. Yet, when we choose to go our own ways in lieu of His, we discover ourselves getting nowhere fast. It never plays out for our best. What God allows, He carries us through. He strengthens us with all power according to His glorious might and we are enabled to do things too hard for us to do. As we trust in Him – following His path – leaning not on our own understanding – we begin to take hold of the life that is truly life, not merely some cheap Hollywood variety – rather real, purposeful and pleasant not plastic.
God desires for us to be transparent and honest before Him as He is already fully aware of all our thoughts and actions – even down to the motivations of our hearts. Obedience to God and his perfect and pleasing will is for our good and His glory never one surpassing the other and He always has our bests interest at heart – even and perhaps even more so - in the trials and tribulations of our souls – as difficult as they may be. When we begin to grasp the amazing and undying love of God toward us – even as sinners - and His desire for us to walk as Jesus did, His love becomes a source of great comfort as well as a prompting toward our obedience to Him. Moses pens in Deuteronomy 33:12 (NIV): “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”
We are so prone to wander in our ways, prone to leave the God we love. And God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if any desire Him, if any remain faithful as King David penned in Psalms 14:3 (NIV): “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Let that not be said of us. The only hope for mankind, Scripture teaches, is Jesus.
Keep of me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. Psalms 16:1 (NIV)