“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.”[1]
Does God allow us to be tried? My shortest answer to this question is, ‘Why not?’ I will ask, Did God allow Jesus to be tempted? I am sure he did. Let me invite you to ask another question; ‘Did Jesus cry out to God for help in dealing with Satan’s temptation?’ No, He did not. Jesus never asked God for help, at least not in the sense that you and I ask for help.
I know what you are thinking – ‘What about Gethsemane?’ you ask.
“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”[2]
Jesus asked with a condition. “…yet not as I will, but as You will.”
You might also raise another scripture:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?[3]
The above is a classic scripture that has raised many questions over time. I will give you, my take. God cannot look upon sin, even upon Himself, in the form of Jesus. In modern linguistics, God turned away as Jesus bore the sins of the world, past and present:
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”[4]
Jesus bore our sins – God can’t look at sin. Jesus is human – he feels the loneliness of being separated from God – for the first time ever.
Make sense? Excellent – let’s continue.
Every one of us has to grow from spiritual babes to spiritual adults. Every time an event in our lives causes us to feel discomfort, fear, or depression, we cannot expect God to wipe our tears away like babies. God didn’t do that for Jesus; why you and me?
“My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That’s why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned.”[5]
The sun rises, the sun sets – the seasons come, and seasons go; all this happens without anyone at the dashboard. God created our beautiful world to function in this way. God is not sitting at a desktop or tablet on the move; no, it all happens automatically. Events will come and go in our lives; some will leave us in comfort, and others will leave us in shock and disbelief, but they will come. Many of these events will be caused by us. Some caused by others in this world, but all will be part of the mighty universal function set in place by God at the time of creation.
So, to summarize, God does not try us; God allows the trials we go through –where is our hope then?
God is not a nappy-changer in the nursery but the coach in our gym of life. God mentors us through the tricky bits – continually. Keep exercising your faith, keep your example, Jesus, in your sight, and hone your communications with God so that you always hear God’s voice, and when you hear that precious voice – Act!
If God tells you to change an event – do it. If you can’t change it, God tells you to accept it. Thank God for the wisdom to recognize the difference between these two situations.
Until next time
Love and blessings
Peter-James