“ No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)

 2 Corinthians 10:5 encourages us towards the stance of relentlessly, “…bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”.  This is the connecting, correlating sister-scripture to our scriptural text for today.  What is the drive home point of insight that God is saying within the collaboration of these two scriptures? The tempter uses thoughts to tempt you!

Yes, it is true that the tempter is very cunning and subtle as how he goes about submitting kingdom-opposing thoughts into your mind. Yet, it is with those subtle, small moments that you MUST be ever alert and perceptively responsive to the Holy Spirt who will immediately alert you to the tempter’s plans of confusion, so that you may not be knocked off your kingdom-directed path.

God is faithful! God is able! God will always keep His Word! This is good to know; even when it appears as things are going wrong, you can hold on to the fact that God is faithful and “…[He] will always make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear [ any temptation]”. Our personal responsibility in this entire process is taking the time to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit when He alerts us to the temptations coming through our thoughts. Nobody is impervious to tempting thoughts; even Jesus dealt with them!

In John 5, a sick man who had been dealing with an infirmity for 38 years encounters Jesus face to face. Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be made well?”; for which the man responds, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” In that next moment, Jesus directs the man, “Rise, take up your bed and walk”, and instantly the man was indeed made well, took up his bed, and walked. 

That sick man almost lost his miracle of healing because of his thoughts. Praise God for His faithfulness that even when we are vulnerable to our thoughts which could cause us to miss out on supernatural miracles – He is ever so graciously covering our minds, so that we shall always flourish and never be overtaken by the tempter.