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What Can You Handle?



I was reading a devotional article recently that challenged the old saying that “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” I must admit that I never have bought into this saying because it seemed to be steeped in arrogance that I can not only do it all myself, but somehow that God will step back and actually let me solve everything under my own wisdom and power.

When it comes to life, I will quickly admit that I really don’t want to handle it. I confess that I not only need help, but would greatly appreciate and welcome all help that could be directed towards my cause.

When life becomes challenging or difficult, I usually quote the all-too-familiar, 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Perhaps even a similar passage of Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”

Now, back to that devotional I was referencing earlier. The author challenged the mindset of “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” He referenced the Old Testament story of the “Exodus” (Moses) in Exodus 13:17, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

The Israelites must have thought Moses was insane and incapable of leading them any further. After all they had been through with getting out of bondage and moving on foot as a people, why would they by-pass the short-cut and go the long way around? They possessed everything they needed and were prepared to take the shorter route.

That is the key. Just because they were able and it “sounded good”, made sense and could be successful, it still wasn’t what was best overall. It wasn’t God’s plan for them. What may appear, at the time, to be the best solution may not always be the best decision or best direction.

Author J.D. Walt, in his devotional “Trust God When the Way Seems Longer,” said, “God knew. He knew what they could handle and what they could not handle. God knew the mileage differential between the two routes. He knew the soldier count in the Philistine armies and he knew what the Israelite body count would be on the other side of a battle. He knew they would be ready to turn around and go back to Egypt, settle back into their slavish existence and count it all as a bad dream. God chose not to give them more than he knew they could handle.”

Whether it is manageable, or a time we are given more than we can handle, there is a tendency to rely on our own strength, knowledge, experience and abilities to manage our way through the crisis or incident. Although we may have some faith, it seems to be more in ourselves than in God. As it said in Exodus 13:17, we might even be tempted to “change our minds” and go do something totally out of God’s will.

I honestly believe that regardless of whether it is a situation that is more than we can handle or something that seems “not so bad,” it is all ordained by God to be a moment in which He wishes for us to allow Him to enter into it to show us His love, power and authority. God wants to work with us, bless us, and maybe flavor all our situations with just enough “impossibility” that we will recognize we can’t do this alone….that we need God…and that we need Him as a first priority instead of a “last minute” bail-out stimulus program.

This COVID-19, Coronavirus is pushing us all past our limits much like the Israelites leaving Egypt. We are having to do things beyond our abilities, our comfort zone, and maybe even incurring expenses that are beyond what our bank-account tells us we can spend.

We are all dealing with not being able to attend Church. We are all homeschooling our kids, navigating the unemployment  paperwork, paying bills while laid-off, restricting our movement, and battling empty store shelves.

Some are battling life-threatening illnesses, seeing medical procedures canceled and have not only lost family members to death but now have no way of conducting the funeral. We are, by no means, taking the short-cut through this pandemic at all.

Yes, God has the authority and power to simply “say the words” and this virus would disappear instantaneously and so quickly it would almost seem like it was never here. But, God is not taking the short cut. God is choosing to walk with us by taking the long way around. Will we allow Him to take us there?

What is God trying to show us in the impossible? The insane? What are we supposed to learn from all the “doesn’t make sense” moments of this world health crisis? I believe that regardless of what words we use to describe this situation it will all boil down to the fact that this is an impossible situation from which only God can save us.

God always sees the end from the beginning. He even knows the solutions and stands ready to forgive us when we viciously fight Him because we are determined to take the short cut and stubbornly insist on making that square peg fit in the round hole.

If it just doesn’t make sense….or seems too hard…too long…too far to go, we still trust and, with faith in God, continue to let Him lead us forward along the way. We must resist the urge to bail out and go the easier way or to take the route that seems to make more sense.  Don’t focus on your circumstances. Focus on God in your circumstances.

God knows the way. He has the plans as well as the directions. Trust Him. Trust that what He has in store for you is ultimately the best. 2 Corinthians 4:18, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

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