Paternoster rosary 5.5 - 1 Corinthians 10:13

Quite often this is the passage I leave aside if I'm not using all five. Some of what it says is covered in earlier reflections. It is a comforting verse in both the reassuring and the challenging sense of 'comfort'. It can reassure us that God is providentially guiding our life so that whatever times of test, challenge or temptation we may face, there will always be a way through. There lies the challenge too: we can't get away with claiming there is no alternative but to sin which can be the easier thing to want to say.

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

First off, it's good to reflect on our solidarity with the rest of the human race: we are all prone to temptation and testing, and in fact it all derives from the same set of drives and concerns that we all share to varying degrees. We may not all be tempted to lust after David Beckham, but we have all experienced desire and that desire can be inappropriate to who we are or our situation. We may not suffer the trial of finding an unlocked car and finding it all to easy to drive off in it, but the possibility of passing up having something that is not rightfully ours when an apparently victim-free opportunity presents itself is far from foreign to most people, even if it is only the extra change we are given on the bus home.



Then we might want to think about what lies ahead recalling that God is faithful: there is nowhere we can go, no situation we can be in which is God-forsaken (much though it may feel like it, or much though we might want it to be, sometimes). God's resources to meet our hour of trial are always available whether it is strength or a way to sidestep. Sometimes our biggest trial is actually to be willing to look for God, God's strength or God's exit strategy. This is not to say it will not still be testing; clearly it is the case that the trial is severe, but we can take comfort that it is not, in principle, beyond us.



It may be that as we look into the day ahead, as much as we can anticipate of it, we see potential situations of trial. Let's look for the ways out or round them, let's think ourselves into them but conscious that God will be there and see if we can reconfigure our reactions ...

Save us from the time of trial, but if we must go through it, deliver us from becoming part of the ill of the situation, rather let us be instruments of shalom.



Previous passage (5.4)

Crosswalk.com - 1 Corinthians 10:13:Filed in: Prayer_beads, paternoster, Praying_the_Pattern, reflection, rosary, Christian, spirituality, prayer, Abbeynous