Wednesday 5th February 2020 Devotion
Scripture:- 2 Corinthians 1:1-9
Topic:- When God Gives You More Than You Can Handle [1]
Text:- 1 Corinthians 10:13
God doesn’t want us to rally more of our own strength. He wants us to rely solely on His strength. There’s no easy way to attach the word cancer to your world and not make all who love you cry.
I kept thinking about that statement everyone loves to throw out in times like these: “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” But that’s not actually in the Bible.
God does say He won’t allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear and that He always provides a way out. But that’s not the same as God not giving us more than we can handle. See 1 Corinthians 10:13.
He sometimes will allow more and more and more. I knew this. And now I was sitting in a pink chair living it. And, as I type these words, I know I’m not the only one who feels they’ve been given more than they can handle.
I see the wide-eyed expressions on people all the time. Grief upon grief. Hurt upon hurt. Heartbreak upon heartbreak. Addiction upon addiction. Diagnosis upon diagnosis. Disappointment upon disappointment.
The world is filled with people who are dealt more than they can handle. And, surprisingly, the Bible is also filled with people who were given more than they could handle. See 2 Corinthians 1:8-9.
God doesn’t expect us to handle this. He wants us to hand this over to Him. He doesn’t want us to rally more of our own strength. He wants us to rely solely on His strength.
If we keep walking around, thinking that God won’t give us more than we can handle, we set ourselves up to be suspicious of God.
We know we are facing things that are too much for us. We are bombarded with burdens. We are weighed down with wondering. And we are all trying to make sense of things that don’t make sense.
Before we can move forward in a healthy way, we must first acknowledge the truth about our insufficiency. Cancer is more than I can handle… on my own.
I closed my eyes and silently asked God to come and sit in the empty pink chair near me, Art, and the Doctor. I needed God to show me His perspective so I could set my perspective. But it didn’t come right away. And that frustrated me.
I was filled with fear and questions like, Why this? Why now? Why me? I could feel my emotions starting to unravel and my resolve to trust God slipping. It was too much. I didn’t want to keep trying so hard to trust God. I was tired of trying to make sense of this life that isn’t supposed to be this way
I went to bed that night seriously contemplating running away to Montana to hide from my life. I could be a waitress in a breakfast diner. I had been a waitress when I was in my early twenties and loved it. Life was simpler then. Serving up plates of bacon and eggs and toast sounded so appealing. But cancer would follow me.
The hurt would follow me. And even my wrestling with whether or not I could trust God would certainly follow me whether I moved to Montana or just crawled in a hole somewhere.
The story I started telling myself was that life would never get any better. My mind became fixated on all that pointed to this season of suffering being my new normal.
I woke up with panicked feelings. I walked around with panicked feelings. I went to bed with panicked feelings.
Prayer Point:- Oh Lord God, help me to rely on You alone wholeheartedly henceforth by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Happy Mid-Week!
