I remember as a young adult that my youth pastor liked to shake his finger at me and repeat 1 Corinthians 10:13:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.

I never quite understood why he would keep saying that to me. The thing about that scripture is that you have to have some desire to not to do something for it to be a temptation. That was what I was missing most of the time! I wanted to do something and I did it! As a 19 year-old doing 19 year-old things I wanted to say, “Don’t worry, I am not going through temptation!

However, I heard that scripture alluded to again recently in an episode of TrueMeFree on YouTube. Nathan Wheeler is a great guy who had several supernatural near-death experiences and created a web series where he described his experiences. I asked him if wanted to get involved in menofvalue.com but he said he was too busy.

Back in September of 2015, he created a video when he woke up with a blood-clot in his neck and was having an anxiety attack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8K34C6oPak). He was talking about how Paul and Peter and others were not given more than they could bear despite the fact that they were beheaded, crucified upside down, etc… They were killed for their faith. I was asking myself, was that something they could bear, death? How is dying standing up underneath their trials? How is that handling it? I don’t know, it seemed to me that something that leads to death is something that by definition we and our bodies cannot handle!

However, there is something that is missing from this reasoning of mine. The Lord may not give you more than you can bear, but lets look closer at the word, “you” in 1 Corinthians 10:13. I don’t think that it is meant to imply that we are solo units while enduring the trials and tribulations and even the temptations of life or that we can stand up by ourselves. The idea is that we may not be able to handle all of this ALONE. Sometimes the only thing that can get us through these things is strength that does not come from us.

This reminds me of a common prayer of mine. I often pray:

“Lord I don’t want to do your will…but if you want me to do XYZ (or not do XYZ) you are going to have to give me the strength and the desire to (not) do it!”

The Lord in the garden prior to the crucifixion could not stand up underneath the weight of His coming trials by Himself. Jeremiah could not handle all of the things that were going on around him by himself, he prayed and complained and blamed the Lord.  Neither could Paul or Peter handle their trials and temptations regarding their impending beatings, tortures, and deaths…by themselves. And neither are we expected to stand-up on our own strength.

Now this leads to another important point about the body of Christ. None of us are the Lord Himself so we cannot give the help that only He can. And not all of us are psychologists. Some people need help that we may not be able to give. That is something that we have to accept and be wise enough to be able to see. That is a point that needs to be prayerfully considered.

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

————————————————–W.