"There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: But GOD IS FAITHFUL, who will not suffer you to be tempted (tested) above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1 Cor. 10:13).
        GOD IS FAITHFUL, His grace does much more abound, and He will not give you over to suffering beyond the point where you can bear it.  In mercy He will (Amplified says) "also provide a way out - the means of escape to a landing place - that you may be capable and strong and powerful patiently to bear up under it." That is the marvelous working of the grace of God, for "I HAVE RESERVED UNTO MYSELF," all these that are graced by My special care.
        God had spoken to Jacob to "go up to Bethel," and so Jacob promptly set out to do so.  "And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob." (Gen. 35:5).  It was not some reputation of how fiercesome these sons of Jacob were, nor how valiantly they could fight─ but it was THE TERROR OF GOD which held them in restraint─ Jacob and all his family were BEING GRACED BY GOD, thus their adversaries were held in check.  Likewise in this day, we can be KEPT from pursuit, because we are kept by GOD.
    David, and his band of men, had served as a protecting wall for Nabal, so that the marauding bands could not steal Nabal's sheep, and so one day David sent ten of his young men to Nabal to see what he would give them as a thank you gift for their kindness toward him.  Nabal refused to offer any thing.  Then David was ready to avenge himself, until Nabal's wife, Abigail, came with a special present, and some Godly counsel.  And after his temper cooled, David said to Abigail, "As the Lord God of Israel lives, which has kept me back FROM HURTING YOU." (1 Sam. 25:34).  Yes, God used the wife of Nabal, but IT WAS GOD CONTROLLING the situation─ it was GRACE IN ACTION, reserving, keeping, lest David would do things he later regretted.
        "I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and WILL HOLD YOUR HAND, AND WILL KEEP YOU." (Isa. 42:6).  The reservations are on─ they are presently holding your hand, keeping you, strengthening you, protecting you, and with great love working all things together into your good, and for His praise.
        "Except the Lord KEEP the city, the watchman stays awakes in vain." (Ps.127:1)
        "He will not suffer your foot to be moved: He that keeps you will not slumber." (Ps. 121:3).  The watchman may fall asleep, and awaken too late to sound a warning, but our KEEPER will not slumber.  Situations come along and by the time we are aware of what is happening, it is too late to change or modify the events.  So we cry out for God's mercy, and discover that HIS GRACE WAS RESERVING US right through all the circumstances
        Our prayer is surely expressed by the Psalmist, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.  Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties." (Ps. 141:3-4).  Thank God for His grace that keeps us from saying what we ought not to say.  Thank God that HE HOLDS US from becoming involved with the men that work iniquity.  We would not eat of their dainties, i.e. not experience their evil involvements.  Thank God that HE IS RESERVING HIS FIRSTFRUITS, no matter how much sin abounds.
        I dare say, the prayer─ "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..." (Matt. 6:13), is a prayer which emphasizes our weakness, and we are telling God that without His grace, we fall.  For, I dare say, IF He removes the restraints, we do what comes naturally─ "the flesh lusts against the Spirit." (Gal. 5:17).  Whether prompted by the carnal mind, or by the oppressive spirits of the world that solicit us to do evil.  Thank God, therefore, for the promise of God, that we shall be "KEPT by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed..."(1 Peter 1:5).
        Truly, "The Lord KNOWS HOW to deliver the godly out of temptation, and (THE LORD KNOWS HOW) to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." (2 Peter 2:9).
        Punished─ kolazo─ to restrain, TO PRUNE, so as to bring about a change, correction in behavior.  Grace is overwhelmingly evidenced in His judgments.  Praise God, HE KNOWS HOW to keep us out of trouble, and reserve us unto His day of glory.  But, I dare say, He also knows how to keep certain people up to their necks in trouble, while He chastens and subdues the will that is so strongly set to do its own thing.  THE PRUNINGS OF GOD are also used to reveal more of His grace, for even in all of this, people are upheld by His mercy, else they would not be able to survive the process that He appoints for them.  What a mighty God, a GOD OF GRACE, we serve!
        The TRIUMPH OF GRACE is certainly revealed in Jeremiah 50:20.  "In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and for the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: FOR I WILL PARDON WHOM I RESERVE." How marvelous!
        The iniquity of Israel, and the sins of Judah, almost defy our imagination.  God once told them, "Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters as you have done." (Ezekiel 16:48).  Yet God promises a day of restoration for all Israel, as well as for Sodom and Gomorrah.  Yes, the judgments will be severe─ but GRACE WILL FORGIVE, and out of every vessel that is marred in the hand of the Potter, He will make of it again a vessel as pleases Him.  Every one reserved unto the day of judgment will also be pardoned by God, as His grace reaches out to every man, and Calvary's triumph is fully revealed.  GRACE does not keep man for an ultimate eternal torment, nor for a day of annihilation, but grace holds till the day of correction into His righteousness.  RESERVED UNTO SALVATION─ ONLY GRACE CAN DO THAT!
        "They shall all know Me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. 31:3).  So all-inclusive is this working, that we let it stand on its own promise.  ALL FORGIVEN─ so declares His grace.
        Now, men often try to contrast grace and law, forgetting that it was GRACE THAT GAVE THE LAW to help preserve until the better, the Saviour, came to bring life.  The law "was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come." (Gal. 3:19).  "The law was given by Moses, but Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17).  The law established the death penalty, and served as a restraint.  But GRACE establishes the LIFE PRINCIPLE, and transforms and makes us into a new creation species which cannot sin.
        This, too, we have observed, that we each have our own special GRACES from God.  "What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did receive it, why do you glory (or boast), as if you had not received it?" (I Cor. 4:7). If you have any gift, ability, blessing, you received it not because of any, merit, but simply because GOD GRACED YOU.  So, Paul writes, why do you act as if it was always yours, and not something given to you?  We acknowledge that we are what we are by the grace of God and without Him we are nothing.
        So, Paul writes, "For I would that all men were even as I myself (single).  But every man has his PROPER GIFT (charisma, GRACE) of God, one after this manner, another after that." (1 Cor. 4:7).  Paul received grace to live his life, AND SO DO WE ALSO.  If I do not have your gift of grace, I cannot do what you do.  We all have our individual graces from Him, that we might do what HE calls us to do.  But we are not to compare our gifts and graces, to glory in what we have, and another does not have.  TO OUR OWN MASTER we are accountable, and we do all to His glory and praise.  We learn to be at peace with our calling in Him, for we realize it is uniquely ours by His grace.  Thus grace brings us into rest─ no more striving to emulate another, but we would yield to His inworking, to become what He purposes us to become.
        "I do not frustrate (belittle, think down, disannul) the grace of God." (Gal. 2:21).  Whatever He has done in your life, do not think it "small" because of what you have seen Him do in another.  There is no great, or small, in the operations of His grace, but we are being fitted into His body in just the right proportion as He has purposed for us, and HE looks upon His handiwork in us, and says, "a vessel in Whom I am well-pleased."
        WE ARE GRACED, we are RESERVED, not to run the way of the world, nor to bow down to Baal (religious icons of our day), nor are we graced to yet remain entangled in religious Babylon. (Though in His sovereign working some are led to remain in the religious systems of our day, for reasons of His purpose.) But we are reserved, graced, to become expressions of His life.  We are called to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  HE has A REMNANT, AN ELECTION, A FIRSTFRUITS, which are graced to be conformed to His image.