“ God won’t
give us more than we can handle”… ? really… Do you believe this? What about those parents in the Sandy Hook shootings, or the widow who just lost
her best friend… or the parent who is watching the child that they love be
taken by drugs or addiction????
…If we are going to believe God’s power and amazing Grace,
we must believe that he has a plan, purpose and intention. God doesn’t make bad things happen to
us. He doesn’t give someone cancer to
teach them a lesson. He doesn’t take
someone’s husband in a tragic accident so that He can prove His power over this
world.
How do we know
this???
The Bible says!
Cor tells us all about faith hope and love…. And then says the greatest of these is Love…HE
LOVES US…
WHY? To reveal His Holy presence… others will see His comfort and
peace flow from me in the midst of pain and brokenness.
Also because if
we are going to share in His inheritance… the inheritance of eternal life, we
must also share in His
suffering
When we suffer
for HIM, we will find peace… When we TRUST and believe that He will provide, we
will not be reluctant to make a TRUE sacrifice…ONLY when we make this type of
sacrifice will we experience God’s deep peace…
Cor. 10:13
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.
See this passage does NOT say that
God won’t give us more than we can handle (HE WILL!!!)… It says he will give us a way out so that we can endure… Just look at Paul's suffering...
2 Corinthians 11:21–30
22 Are they Hebrews? aSo
am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are
they bservants
of Christ? cI
am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, dfar
more imprisonments, ewith
countless beatings, andfoften
near death. 24 Five
times I received at the hands of the Jews the gforty
lashes less one. 25 Three
times I was hbeaten
with rods. iOnce
I was stoned. Three times I jwas
shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on
frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, kdanger
from my own people, ldanger
from Gentiles, mdanger
in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false
brothers; 27 nin
toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, oin
hunger and thirst, often without food,2 in cold and exposure. 28 And,
apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for pall
the churches. 29 qWho
is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
30 rIf
I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
See, God WILL allow
us to endure more than we could EVER handle on our own!!! In vs 30, Paul ”boasts
of the things that show his weakness” because those things show his (and our) dependency on the power
and mercy of God.
For we were so utterly burdened
beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the
sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but
on God who raises the dead (2 Cor 1:8,9,
God
is making it clear that we are not self-sufficient. It will never be enough
to just”dig deep” on our own, or try to power through every tough situation. And we cannot “white-knuckle” our way to
holiness. We need Him!
What
if our blessings come through raindrops?what if our healing comes through
tears?
So maybe we need to stop seeing the
tough stuff in our lives as reasons to doubt God’s mercy… . Maybe we need to
start seeing them as proof that God indeed loves us very much—so much so that
He will not let us try to rely on our own weak strength,
but will feel His amazing grace, and HIS comfort through our faith…!!!
Romans 5:3…
we[b] boast in
the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory
in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
