Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, October 27, 2023
Yes, the hairy and slightly-tanned wrist you see above belongs to me. I spent much of last week in the hospital, being monitored because of a rebellious kidney stone. (Update: Late this week the matter was totally cured, and I feel fine!)
Anyway, as usual when one checks into a hospital, his or her wrist is immediately surrounded by several plastic bracelets. This one (which I taped back on again for the photo) annoyed me a bit. Though my hair is admittedly silver, I don’t think of myself as tottery in the least. Yet the medical staff in their wisdom decided to proclaim me as such. So all week I had to wear this badge of feebleness, and a nurse even had to accompany me during my first sojourn along the halls, until she had proved to herself that I was indeed steady on my underpinnings.
It turns out that our Great Physician considers each one of us a “fall risk.” Speaking of temptation, Paul warns, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). But immediately he follows it up with encouragement: “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.”
And in verses 24 and 25 of one of the Bible’s tiniest books, its author Jude dedicates what he’s written to “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.”
For more practical Bible encouragement about temptation, click the link just below: