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Temptation


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 Corinthians 10:13)

        I’m reading No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted. It deals with caring for people with dementia from a spiritual perspective. The first thing they deal with is something I’ve noticed in the on-line support group and in myself: guilt and resentment. Family caregivers struggle with these responses. They feel guilty because they can’t fix things or do enough. They resent their friends and relatives for not stepping in and helping enough and for not appreciating their sacrifices. They resent their charges for their neediness, inconsideration, lack of appreciation, and (sometimes) down-right nastiness. They hate the medical community for its slowness and ineffectiveness. Caregivers face a lot of temptation. That includes long-distance caregivers who can’t do anything but listen and feel.
         Caregivers aren’t alone. Whoever you are, whatever your circumstances, chances are very good that you are likewise experience the temptation to guilt, resentment, anger, hatred, pride, jealousy, lust… the exact temptation may differ, but it’s there. Today’s passage tells us that these temptations are common to man. Yep. You feel them. I feel them. So does the celebrity who “has it all” and the homeless person seeking shelter under a bridge. If by some chance you aren’t feeling tempted right now, you have before, you will again, and someone close to you is losing the struggle. 
          Today’s passage promises not only that the temptations we feel are common to all people, but that God doesn’t let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. I think this is the verse that some people have misquoted as “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.” If that were the case, what possible need would we have for God? Who gets to decide what we can handle? The things that have made me (or revealed me to be) strongest are the very things that I didn’t think I could handle. I’m a wimp when given a choice. The key to this isn’t in us. God provides a way out of the temptation, so we can endure it. This is one of the reasons we need to be praying for one another, lest we fall into temptation.

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