The Daily Word of Righteousness

Kept by the Power of God, continued

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (I Corinthians 10:13)

God provides a successful pathway to victory for every fiery trial we experience. Sometimes the "way to escape" consists of the difficulty and pain being removed from us or we from it, as was true of Jacob and his family who fled from Canaan to the land of Egypt where God had provided food and safety for them.

In other instances, Christ sustains His servant in the midst of terrifying circumstances. This was the case with the three Hebrew men in the furnace, with Daniel in the lions' den, with Paul before Nero.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (Isaiah 43:2)

God can carry us bodily up to Heaven when our testimony has been completed, as was true of Elijah; or He can maintain the prophetic anointing on us while we die in sickness, as happened to Elisha who possessed the double portion of God's Spirit.

God can cause the waters of judgment to buoy up the prepared saint and his loved ones, as in the deliverance of Noah.

The Lord causes the faithful, persevering saint to march along in the triumphal procession of Christ for all mankind to behold.

The Scriptures reveal to us that the Lord God has an infinite variety of "escapes" for the saint who is undergoing testing.

Stephen showed us how perfect victory and glory can be maintained even during the final moments before martyrdom. What have we to fear?

Let us return to Revelation 3:10.

The believer is obliged to guard carefully, observing to obey, the Word of Christ. This is not the careless, lazy, slipshod, halfhearted manner in which many Christian people address themselves to God's Word.

If we would claim the guarding power of Christ during the worldwide testing at hand we must guard the Word of Christ with the same diligence with which we trust Christ will keep us from evil.

It is not scriptural, not of God, to hope that even though we have drifted along without diligently learning and obeying the Word of Christ that we will be guarded in that hour, kept from the seductive power of a demon-filled environment. It appears there are numerous "believers" in Christ who are continuing in the delusion that because of their initial profession of belief they will not undergo severe testing in the world. We are not to abuse the Scriptures in this fashion. Christ will perform His promises only if we keep our part of the contract.

Teachers of the Scriptures who are slanting God's Word so it attracts people, omitting the stern demands of discipleship and righteous behavior, are moving toward a dreadful day of reckoning—they and their students who trusted them.

To be continued.