When we’re in a precarious place, some things are better off unsaid:
“Oh, my brother went through the same exact thing once.”
“Honey, you’re still young. This won’t be the worst thing ever.”
And then there’s my most un-favorite:
“Remember, God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
Really?
When we’re in a critical circumstance it’s understandable that others don’t know what to say, but the last thing we should be told is something untruthful.
“God won’t give you more than you can handle” is not in the Bible, just like, “Grandma is an angel up in heaven now,” and “God helps those who help themselves.”
Promoting ideas that skew the truth don’t help anyone in any kind of pain.
God allows us to go through extremely difficult circumstances, even to the point of grave danger. Remember these stories:
- The disciples were in a storm on the Sea of Galilee and cried out to Jesus because they were certain they were going to drown.
- A woman bled out for twelve years, and had suffered much after walking away anemic and without answers from many doctors.
- Even the prophet Elijah couldn’t stand up to Ahab and Jezebel’s death threats and ran for his life. When the angel found him in the wilderness he even said, “This journey is too much for you.”
Another story in Acts 19 tells us that when Paul was in Ephesus, he didn’t just find himself in a city-wide riot, but he caused it. Here in the U.S. we’re fairly acquainted with riots. From L.A. to Ferguson to Baltimore, we know how tensions can rise when value systems clash. Paul was right in the middle of that kind of violence.
At that time in Ephesus the worship of Artemis was housed in a temple 425 feet long by 220 feet wide by 60 feet high. Highly valued, everyone knew it best not to step on the toes of her worshipers.
But when Christianity spread, cultures collided. In Acts 19:23 we’re told that the silver, idol-casting business experienced a dip in sales. Paul and the believers received unwanted, menacing attention. A religious panic ensued.
In the middle of it all I don’t think anyone walked up to Paul and said, “You know, this might look bad right now, but God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
Paul stood in the midst of a brawl. The mob wreaked havoc. This was far more than Paul could handle.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, Paul says, “I thought I was going to die.”
Our circumstances will be more than we can handle.
Paul experienced encompassing, overwhelming, despair. Paul thought to himself, “This is where it all ends.”
How did the Apostle Paul thrive in this?
He relied on the God, who raises the dead.
That’s the enormous kind of faith that comes to those who’ve experienced the worst kinds of situations.
Once you’ve been through that kind of experience—the one where the chemo injection goes awry, where the accident crushes all your bones, where the fire sweeps through your house and traps you inside—and you come out, by some miracle, alive, you believe a whole new set of rules.
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God is present and powerful.
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God makes the rules.
Reflecting back on this experience Paul still feels the cold chill of death just thinking about it. The perfect tense of the verb he uses gives us an ongoing sense that he “receives” and relives his near-death experience. It’s an experience you can never forget. In that moment, you learned that you cannot rely on yourself. Your power has limits.
Only God.
Our gravest sufferings are the places in which we encounter God. That’s the beauty and horror of Jesus.
He doesn’t take away our pain, but he lives with us in it. We engage our faith like Paul when we trust him to bring us back to life.
What is one of the worst things someone has said to you during a time of crisis?
(We're all guilty of it, let's learn from one another so only life-giving words leave our lips).
The post When It’s Far, Far More Than You Can Handle appeared first on Margaret Feinberg.