In the Nick-of-Time!
Text: 1 Corinthians 10:13
Timing is God's, not ours. We tend to be impatient because of our view of the tough circumstances with which we are dealing. His view is different and far better. Trust him and His timing for your situation! He is trustworthy! He is not going to fail you!
When I was a kid, my TV hero was Superman. I, and every other kid on the block, zoomed through the neighborhood with a cape (towel) around our shoulders as we fought the bad guys. Superman was so cool! He could run faster than a speeding bullet, He was more powerful than a locomotive (for the youth, that was a train), He could leap tall buildings with a single bound. WOW! No matter how bad it got, just when things were the worst, a voice would call out "What's that in the sky? Is it a bird?...is it a plane? NO, it's Superman!"
The Apostle Paul whas some sort of a spiritual Superman-to-the-rescue moments, except all his close calls were real!
2 Timothy 3:11 refers in this passage to some life-or-death experiences Paul had. He calls them, "what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them."
You could say that, and so could I. It's not that it hasn't been very close sometimes. Just look at some past episodes. The time the money ran out, your friends and family ran out, your strength ran out. Or the times you've been so lonely you couldn't stand it, so frustrated because every door slammed shut. Times when things or people you had depended on were suddenly gone; when you felt hopelessly overwhelmed by an overload of responsibilities. Yes, you've been to the edge of desperation, "yet the Lord rescued me from all of them."
And maybe now you're in a perilous place again or a painful place. This time it looks like there is no way out, there's no time left to turn it around, no place an answer could come from. But then, it looked like that before at the end of other episodes, didn't it, and you're still here. Those mountains that once looked insurmountable are now just monuments to what God can move. Those problems that seemed unsolvable are now part of your testimony of the faithfulness of God. If you forget yesterday's Red Sea, you won't have faith to face today's giants.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13, God made a promise to you that "He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted (the word also means tested), He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
God will never let you face more than you can handle with His strength. In fact, He will pour out for you on a daily basis, the strength needed. The promise of Deuteronomy 33:25 is this: "Your strength will equal your days."
And Paul found, really at the end of his rope, that "My grace" God said, "is sufficient for you." In the original Greek translation, "Enough for you, my grace."
Remember, Jesus is your Savior, and Savior means Rescuer. He's already accomplished the toughest rescue of all. He rescued you from the clutches of sin and hell. Surely, after that, He can save you from this comparatively small crisis. He will change the situation, or He will enlarge you to deal with it, but He will always rescue you! He always has.
Sometimes we go into big trouble. But the LORD will rescue you. The same God Who brought you through so many episodes in the past, is still writing the script with some very close calls and some pretty amazing rescues!
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