Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 12 June 2022 || Sunday Message
Read Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 12 June 2022 2022
Topic: No Different Story
Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 12 June 2022 MESSAGE
The writer of Hebrews describes Scripture as a sharp sword. From my perspective, it often feels more like a needle.
One verse that has needled me for years is 1 Corinthians 10:13:
“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.”
Why does that verse prick me so? Because every now and then I’m tempted to think that God couldn’t expect from me what he does from others. Obviously, it’s a “different story” in my case, right?
I remember lying on my hospital bed as a scared teenager, thinking that God was putting me through more than I could take. Paralysis. Total and permanent. But there was 1 Corinthians 10:13, reminding me that God is faithful, and that he will not let me be tempted beyond what I can bear.
The verse came back to pierce me again when I was in my late twenties, single, and with every prospect of remaining so. Sometimes lust or a bit of fantasizing would seem so inviting—and so easy to justify. After all, hadn’t I already given up more than most Christians just by being disabled? Didn’t my wheelchair entitle me to a little “slack” now and then? Maybe some special consideration?
Yet there were those words, staring up at me from the pages of my Bible. God is faithful…he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear…he will provide a way out…you can stand up under it.
When God allows you to suffer, do you have the tendency to use your very trials as an excuse for sinning? Or do you feel that since you’ve given God a little extra lately by taking such abuse, he owes you a free pass or a day off?
I have a hunch we’ve all experienced this inner battle. But when we sit down and examine our lame protests in the strong light of a verse like 1 Corinthians 10:13, the excuses just fade away, one by one.
The truth of the matter is, when we sin during our sufferings, it’s not because ours is a “different story” and we’re force to disobey. We don’t sin because we have to. We sin because we want to.
God gives me grace to live in a wheelchair which he doesn’t give you if you can walk. But He gives you grace to endure an unwanted divorce or the death of a spouse or the loss of a job or the rebellion of a child, which he doesn’t give to me. God provides the way of escape, the means by which we may bear up under our individual trials.
The question is never, “Can you obey?”
It’s more like, “Will you obey?”
Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 12 June 2022 || Wayside Interlude
“He will keep you strong right up to the end, and he will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1:8-9, NLT
In the potent little book of Zephaniah, God declares to Israel,
“I care about sin with a fiery passion.” 1:18, The Message
Have you allowed yourself to imagine that God will overlook or wink at your “little sins” because of what you have suffered or endured? It’s not true! All sin is a great offense to God. Ask his indwelling Holy Spirit to search your heart, and reveal those attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions that cause him grief.
Thanks for reading Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 12 June 2022 Message
