1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
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.
As I reflect on my journey of Making Every Effort to Grow in Maturity, I am reminded that testing is part of the process. I cannot know if I’ve grown, if I am not tested.
One thing that I’ve noticed, that Gabe briefly mentioned on a Sunday, was that when we memorize the church memory verses, oftentimes God will test us in them and make them real to us as we meditate on them daily, from Matthew 22:36-39 all the way to Psalm 139:23-24, and now 1 Corinthians 10:13. So don’t be surprised when temptation comes your way, because it is the real life application of God’s word that gives us a deeper understanding of the Life-giving power it has when we take what we know and turn it into who we are.
In our LifeGroup, we’ve been doing Grow Character 1 and learning how to grow in godly character. One of the scriptures that stood out to me in the section about what it means to grow in godly character was Colossians 3:9-10, “9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” This scripture gave me a picture of what it looks like to grow in godly character, by taking off your old self and putting on the new self. It’s similar to growing out of your old clothes. When you are 8 years old and wear a small shirt, by the time you get to 12 years old, you may need to put on a bigger shirt because you’ve outgrown your small shirt.
I remember having a conversation with Sam about wearing medium shirts and how our “Medium Days” were over now. It was rather bittersweet as medium shirts made us look “Jacked” but they were uncomfortably tight because we were working out more and our muscles got bigger (Praise The Lord), which means we had to start wearing larges.
Now I know that taking off your old self and putting on the new self is a little harder than changing your shirt, but what God was showing me was there is going to be a time where you will be tempted to put on your old self rather than putting on your new you. I have found myself in situations and circumstances, trials and tribulations of sorts, that positioned me in a place of testing (only seen after the fact). These places were way too familiar and I found myself wondering why am I back here and what is the purpose of this?
More often than not in these situations I found myself receiving no answers to the questions. Because of a dissatisfaction and discontent, I began putting on my old self rather than choosing to put on my new self. What this showed me was that sometimes God says nothing to see what you will choose to do. In this case, it was whether I would put on my old self (old thoughts and behaviours), or would I put on my new self (renewed thoughts and behaviours). This showed me that there are areas in my life that still require me to take off my old self and put on the new self. This also showed me that oftentimes we are tempted to go back to what is familiar to us, even if it’s not fruitful but rather just on the merit of comfort.
But I am encouraged by our memory verse 1 Corinthians 10:13. I know that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. In other words, you are not the only one who is being tempted, what may tempt you may also tempt others. God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. In other words, what you are tempted with, God knows you can handle it. When you are tempted, he will also provide you with a way out so you can endure it. In other words, God provides us with a way out, not as a way to escape temptation but as a way to endure it, lessening its power over us over time. So the next time temptation comes around, it might be better to ask God Where? Rather than Why?
Now that gyms are closed, it is getting harder and harder to stay fit. Sometimes I think about putting on a medium shirt just to make me feel like I’m jacked again. The mediums made me seem like I was bigger, but the reality was it was just a tighter shirt. I had to learn that if I really valued working out and building muscle then I would have to make the adjustments and figure out new ways of working out. Frankly, these new workouts are not like gym workouts, but they allow me to keep growing, putting my body under new tensions and stress in order to stay fit and build new muscle (now that’s another message right there). In the same way, temptations may be harder and harder for us to face, especially during a season like this, but if we really value Growing in Maturity, we need to learn how to take off the old self and put on the new self so that when we are put under trials of many kinds, we can grow and be more and more like Christ.
So Lifespring, as we Grow in Maturity, taking off our old self and putting on our new self, being tempted and tried, to solidify our maturity in Christ, let us continue to Make Every Effort.