My First 4x4

“So, if you think you are standing fi rm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 (NIV) 4x4’s are great! I used to think it was sort of a luxury to drive one — now it’s on my “gotta have it” list! I remember my first 4x4 truck. I had parked an old trailer behind my cousin Jack’s place and was heading over to pick it up. Sometime since my last time there, the trail had gotten snowed over and looked kind of impassable — the perfect “power demo” for my newly acquired 4x4 Chevrolet Avalanche. This was going to be fun! So, I shifted the beast into 4x4 and took a good run at it. All went well until about 100 feet into things when my Chevy bottomed out in two and-a-half feet of Alberta’s winter wonderland white stuff. I was so stuck, and my door wouldn’t open because the snow was too deep! I finally crawled out through the window and waded through the drifts to Jack’s house. He wasn’t home, but his shovel was. A bruised ego, two platefuls of humble pie, three tons of shoveled snow, $500 worth of plastic bumper damage, and two hours later I got out. Not my finest hour, but I was out. That reminds me of the above Scripture. It’s easy to get overconfident in our spiritual strength and start thinking we can handle situations that are beyond our limits. God’s Word cautions us to be careful about how we see (and sometimes overestimate) our own spiritual strength, ability, and endurance. God won’t allow temptations we can’t get through, but always provides an “escape route.” That “exit strategy” is usually “put-the-pedal-to-the-metal” to get outta there! — Kene Jackson   Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website. Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org