When you are tempted

When you are tempted.
1 Corinthians 10:13
This is the story of the childhood of Dwight David Eisenhower who was the 34th president of USA. One day he and his friends were playing card game at his house. Eisenhower received very bad card at the first time. He felt terrible. So he threw away the card with anger and said, "What a terrible card! Let's do again."
At that moment, his mom came in the room and looked at the scene. His mom said to Eisenhower and his friends, "Listen to me. Your card game is like a life. Just as you receive bad cards in the card game, you might face bad circumstances in your life. At that time, you cannot throw away your only one life.
You have to endure the bad circumstances and overcome them. You have to do your best whenever your card is good or not. If you keep this lesson, do play card game again. Or not, stop playing card game. And remember this, your card is not always good or always bad."
Eisenhower repented his bad acts and kept his mom's lesson in his heart. After that, Eisenhower met lots of hardship in his life. But he overcame them as he remembered his mother's lesson. So he could be the president of USA and became the great man in the history.
Brothers and sisters, Our life is same. Sometimes we receive good cards, but sometimes we receive terrible card in our life. If we are dejected and give up the game when we received bad cards, we will be loser. Sometimes we go through hills or big mountain. But sometimes we go through plain land or highway. Our life is same. So do not grumble when you are in tempted.
Let's look at Jesus. He came to earth as a poor carpenter's son. When he was born, he had no a bed but a manger. What a terrible card! And Jesus' cards were mostly bad. But Jesus did not grumble, nor did he throw away his mission. Jesus finished his mission even if his card was bad.
Today the apostle Paul introduces very important lesson when we meet the bad circumstances, when we receive bad cards, when we meet hard problems and when we are tempted.
1. 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.
Please think of your hard time. Do you think only you have hard time among the others? No, everyone has hard time in his life. Sometimes the other's card is more terrible than mine.
Let's look at Job. He believed in God faithfully. Even God recognized him as a righteous one. He was richest man in the area. But his richness was totally rooted by others. His 7 sons and 3 daughters were killed by the accident. And he suffered from the terrible skin disease. Even worms came out of his skins.
Through the book of Job, we could realize that even the righteous one has hardship. Even the business of Christians might be in bankrupt. Even the children of Christians might die before their parent. That is, everybody meet problems in his life.
But Job's friends did not realized that. They rebuked Jod, "You have met these terrible accidents because you have sinned." Even Jod's wife told him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"(Job 2:9)
But Job told his wife, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"(Job 2:10) "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."(Job 1:21) Hallelujah!
Brothers and sisters, don't think strange when you meet troubles. Troubles and problems come to the righteous men and the bad men together. Do not fear hardship. We know that we do not perish because of the hardship.
Paul said, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."(2 Corinthians 4:8-9) And today's scripture says, "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."
My beloved, don't forget. All problems we meet can be solved. We can overcome them. God does not let us be tempted beyond our power. God controls all of our problems. God give us only problems that we can solve. So do not worry about the problems.
2. When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
If you meet very hard problems that you cannot solve by your power, what will it be done? Maybe this announcement will be told, "Your exam paper is wrong. It is not yours. Please return the paper." Or "Problem # so and so is not for you. You may not solve that problem."
But if you meet very hard problem, you have to rejoice. Because you are a genius. God has given you that hard problem because you are so powerful to solve that problem. God does not give the fool the hard problem. If you think your problem is hard to solve, please calm down and look at God. He will give you wisdom and power to solve that problem.
Are you now in tempted, are you now in hard time? Remember this scripture and be encouraged. "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." Amen!