Daily Devotions
Friday, October 31, 2025
This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
The story had the elements of a horror movie. Trapped. In the dark. Buried alive. No way out. That was the experience of 13 young men from Thailand who ventured into a cave one afternoon in the summer of 2018. During their spelunking excursion, monsoon rains came early, flooding the two miles of cave they had just passed through, trapping them inside for 17 days. When it was all over, the boys became over-night famous, but they didn’t see themselves as heroes. The real heroes of the story were the thousands who joined the effort to rescue them, with a critical contribution coming from a rag tag team of eccentric, amateur cave divers, whose peculiar interest in an odd hobby made the life and death difference.
The dive out through the murky cave water was so treacherous, the boys had to be put under anesthesia, then carefully floated out one at a time by these weekend warriors, who told the boys, simply, “You’ll get a shot in each leg, fall asleep, and wake up, safe.” Inside the rescue effort, it wasn’t so simple. One estimate was that half the boys would die in the attempt. The doctor who administered the anesthesia feared that none of them would survive. When all 13 were safely brought out, a grateful parent said to one of the divers, “On behalf of all the parents I want to thank you. It’s like our children have died and been given another life.”
Sometimes, when I hear the Bible verse today taken out of context, especially the part about God not giving me more than I can handle, I imagine myself as the hero of the story—that the passage is saying that it’s up to me to make a way out of my temptations and trials, that I need to handle it. But the emphasis of this passage is not on our ability, but God’s. The truth is that God is faithful, and we can handle very little, and by our own power, nothing at all. God does call us to participate in the rescue, to not cave under temptation, to help our neighbors in need. But in the end, the way out is simply to fall asleep in the arms of the crucified and risen Jesus and let Him do His work.
Author David Zahl, in his book The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World, compares our situation to the boys of the 2018 Thai cave rescue. He writes, “Because of God’s grace, it is not up to you to free yourself from captivity … Rescuer is God’s job description. [But] maybe job is the wrong word though, because God is not obliged to rescue anyone. Rescue isn’t his burden but his delight—the sort of thing he’d do on weekends if the opportunity arose. God doesn’t have to save; he loves to save.”
WE PRAY: Dear Father, thank You for Your eccentric grace. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions:
- If we can understand God’s grace as the “Big Relief,” when you have you felt relieved lately?
- How are you tempted to try and handle things on your own?
- God has relieved you from the burden of saving yourself. What has He given you to handle, today?
Today's Readings:
Jeremiah 50Hebrews 6