Beyond my strength

Saturday February 12, 2022

God, who is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength ; but with the temptation he will also prepare the way out of it, so that you can endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13

We have been so overwhelmed, beyond our strength, that we despair even of sustaining life. 2 Corinthians 1.8

Beyond my strength

The two quoted texts seem contradictory. In the first, the apostle Paul affirms that the trial will not go beyond what we can bear. In the second, he recounts difficult circumstances which overwhelmed his strength.

The Bible never contradicts itself, it is necessary to read the rest of the text : "excessively overwhelmed, beyond our strength... so as not to place our confidence in ourselves, but to place it in God... This is he who delivered us... who will deliver us, he from whom we hope that he will deliver us again." The situations that Paul and his companions were going through led them not to rely on their own strength, which turned out to be insufficient, but on God. And God did not leave them to themselves, he delivered them.

Paul would later write : "Therefore I will boast much more willingly in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me... for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12. 9.10).

Christians, when we are faced with difficulties, with sorrows, don't we sometimes question the promise of our God, who is nevertheless faithful ? The trial overwhelms us, it seems that God does nothing, and we are exhausted. We must then "put our trust not in ourselves, but in God." If we turn to him, recognizing that we are overwhelmed, he will come to our rescue, he will teach us to say, like Paul : "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

Source (The Good Seed)