Over
the years, I’ve been involved in many conversations with others and heard some
pretty unbelievable stories of pain and suffering. I’ve listened as women shared their
experiences of afflictions and adversities that have rattled my cage and
challenged my view of God. And one of
the saddest and most frustrating statements I will hear them say on the heels
of their heartbreaking stories is this: But hey, I know God won’t give me more than
I can bear. Then their voice will trail off into silence and with a sigh of
resignation they convince themselves that some how, some way, they will find a
way to get through it because after all, God has only given them problems equal
to their strength to bear them. And by
problems I mean cancer, chronic illness, an unfaithful or abusive husband,
financial ruin, job loss, children bound by addiction, the loss of a child, an
aging parent who can no longer function on their own…and the list goes on. Can you imagine the confusion and frustration
that results when a person believes they should have the strength to get
through a trial, and yet they are struggling just to get out of bed? Or when a healthy parent watches their child
suffer from a disease, and they are confronted with the fact that God must
think their child can handle the pain otherwise He would not have allowed them
to go through it?
To
be clear, I do not want to confuse a trial with a temptation. God does say in I Corinthians 10:13 that He
will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to endure, and that He
will always provide a way for us to escape a temptation. A temptation is anything that appeals to our
desires, but in an unholy way. In other
words, to gratify that desire would require dishonoring Christ in the
process. We can have absolute confidence that God is
present with us in the face of every temptation and will provide the means to
successfully endure each one.
A
trial, however, is anything we go through in life that is beyond our capacity
to handle it. The pages of Scripture are
replete with men and women who experienced circumstances beyond their strength
and ability to navigate them:
The
woman who hemorrhaged for over twelve years.
The Bible lets us know that not only were physicians unable to cure her,
but in fact their efforts left her worse off than before. She was not only physically afflicted, but
her affliction rendered her unclean and therefore unable to be touched or
embraced. Can you imagine twelve years
of not being touched by your family or friends?
Or when others saw you coming they yelled out “unclean”?
The
father of the demoniac son. We learn
that this man’s son had an evil spirit that kept him from talking, caused him
to have seizures, foam at the mouth, gnash his teeth, and on occasion be thrown
into the fire and water. While we don’t
know the son’s age, we do know that the evil spirit had been with his son “since he
was a young child.”
The
widow who lost her only son (Luke 7).
Not only had she lost her husband, she had just lost her only child.
While we do not know the timing of these events, we do know that in that
culture it would have been tremendously difficult for a woman to make enough
money to fend for herself and survive.
Her grief would have multiplied into any number of added sorrows.
Perhaps
one of the most compelling examples is the apostle Paul. Any amount of reading about this man would
reveal someone who was destined to be successful in life. Paul knew this, too, for he writes, “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence
in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a
Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on
the law, faultless.” Here was a man who
should have been able to handle anything life threw at him – smart, born into
the right culture and the right family, talented, and on the fast track to
being the best and most righteous Jewish man around. Before his conversion, Paul was going to
singlehandedly destroy the fledgling early church. After his conversion, Paul was going to
single handedly take on the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. The man was unafraid, full of energy and
passion. And yet, this man is also the one
who pens these words:
“… We who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.” (Phil 3)
“But God said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9)
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death…” (2 Cor 1)
And lest we think he was exaggerating, Paul later
writes in this same book some examples of the things he suffered:
“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”
I think we would all agree he qualifies for a
“get out of trials for free” pass, yes?
But this great champion of the faith does not leave us without revealing
what we need to know when we go through a trial. It was what he knew, and it is what we must
know.
Of God’s refusal to remove Paul’s thorn, Paul
concludes, “for in my weakness His
strength is perfected.” (2 Cor 12)
Of the sufferings he experienced in Asia, he
writes, “But this happened that we might
not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1)
God never intends us to endure trials alone,
mustering up the strength and will to fight through each moment under the
crushing weight of pain and suffering. Our benevolent Creator wove us together
with His own hands, and as the psalmist writes, “He Himself knows our frame, He is
mindful that we are but dust,” (Psalm 103).
God is not a masochist, throwing us into the chaos of this world and
then gleefully standing back, arms crossed, and watching to see us squirm and
struggle. He understands and is mindful
of our brokenness, our depravity, and our weakness.
Psalm 34:17-20 reads, “When the righteous cry for
help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is
near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him
out of them all.”
And it was Jesus who, knowing He was going to take
on the sufferings of all mankind and bear in His own body the full amount of
wrath and pain we deserved, said to His disciples, “I am the vine you are
the branches…apart from Me you can do
nothing.” (John 15)
Ladies,
I would venture to suggest that perhaps life itself is the very definition of a
trial. And if Adam and Eve, in their
perfect surroundings in their state of innocence, and having heard firsthand
direct instructions from God, couldn’t handle a simple conversation with a
snake in a garden; I dare say we are equipped for life on this planet in and of
ourselves.
I
realize I’ve taken a lot of your time, and I thank you. But I hope more than anything you will
understand that God does give us more than we can handle – and that “more than
we can handle” is actually far less than we imagine it is. We are weak and ineffective when it comes to
navigating life successfully. The great
news, though, is that God sent His only begotten Son, and in Jesus we have a Savior who has overcome the world and has promised
us the provision of the Holy Spirit within us to give us what we need, as we
need it, to deliver us through this world.
We can’t handle our life, but God can.
And that is the best news of all.
My verse for the month is:
I love the permanence of this promise - since God made it, it will hold true whether the earth crumbles and falls away - yet His love will not be shaken and His peace will be mine, too.Isaiah 54:10“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed,yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken,nor my covenant of peace be removed,"says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
