More than I can handle

Lately, I've been thinking about Job. Job is a fairly long book of the Bible, with it's 42 chapters and every chapter seems to bring a new challenge. Throughout the whole book he is besieged with trial after trial, eventually losing everything dear to him - his children, his properties, his livestock (his source of income), his health, even his reputation. This book wrestles with the age-old question, "If God is fair and loving, why does he let truly righteous people suffer intensely?"

In order to fully answer that question, you'd have to read through the book of Job; really, the whole Bible, actually. But what really gets my attention with Job is that it refutes the common claim, which many Christians believe, which is that God will not give you more than you can handle.

Could Job "handle" losing his job, his finances, his food, his resources - everything that kept him alive?
Could Job "handle" losing ALL of his ten children?
Could he handle losing his health, and basically everything in his life?

You could say "Yes" because he continued living. But as you read Job, you realize he was not handling things too well. He didn't understand why God let these things happen to him. He was grieved. He cursed the day he was born. He was broken.

Yet he never sinned against God, through all of it. He maintained his faith and love for the Creator and his Savior. Even though God gave him more then he could handle.

In the book, "Kisses from Katie" author Katie Davis wrote,

"I believe God totally, absolutely, intentionally gives us more than we can handle. Because this is when we surrender to Him and He takes over, proving Himself by doing the impossible in our lives." (Kisses from Katie. Davis, 2011)

God wants us. He wants to share our joy, and our sorrow, our laughter, and our pain. He doesn't want you or I to get to comfortable in this life and have "everything under control" for then it is under OUR control, not His. And if you haven't noticed, we make a mess of things. Our human nature chooses sin over righteousness again and again, which puts up a wall between us and Him. This is a catastrophe.

Just how God decides to let things happen to us, and why is beyond me. He is sovereign, I know that much. It is hard lesson to learn - one that I shall never stop learning. even if the worst happens; a family member dies, I lose my home, life crashes around me - He is still worthy. even when I can't handle a situation and am bent til I break, He is still God! He is sovereign. He is in control. His plan is better than our plan, His ways are not our own.

Job learned a lesson through all of this. We may think he didn't deserve to learn this lesson. But in fact, we all deserve worse than what we get for "We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The lesson Job learned?

"Then Job replied to the Lord: 
'I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without my knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
You said, "Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 
My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
Job. 42: 1-6

Job cried out to God and God showed up in a big way. We may not all get to talk to God face to face, but we have these eternal words in Job to remind us of this incredible lesson that God learned:
HE IS GOD. The same God who created the world and made mankind, knowing we will sin and yet loving us anyway. The same God who knew us from the beginning of time, who is Time itself. The same God who prepared His own Son to die for us at the beginning of the world, when He could have just wiped us from existence. THIS same God was in control of Job's life; is in control of our lives. Look at creation - could you ever make mountains? When you speak, does light come forth? Can you form millions of galaxies, billions of stars, or create DNA with a single word?


Job realized what I am striving every day to realize: just how fearsomely, awesomely, powerfully, wonderful, good and WILD our God is. He can - and will- work out everything in our lives for good, but we may not be able to ever see that good. It's His plan. His world.
When life gets overwhelming and threatens to break you lean on this God. The One who knows all and sees all and is All in All. You may break but He never will.
He desperately wants YOU and your love.

I know He doesn't want us to ever be in pain. That wasn't part of His perfect plan. But since we live in a fallen world, pain will come. The question is, will we run from the God, who is holding out his arms and longing to comfort us, or will we run away from Him, screaming that He hurt us? When, in fact, He is the only thing that can hold us together.


That's what He wants to do. Hold us. Love us. Comfort us. Free us. Redeem us. He very well might not be the orchestrating these events in your life which bring you so much pain (see the start of Job, where Satan asks God for permission to attack Job) but He sees all and knows all and His plan is to save you in the end, if you will just let Him.

Let me close with one more quote from Katie Davis, who left her safe, comfortable, rich life at the age of nineteen to live in poverty in Jinja, Uganda and adopt, so far, thirteen girls.

"I have learned to accept it, even ask for this "more than I can handle". Because at these times, God shows Himself more than victorious. He reminds me that all of this life requires more of Him and less of me. God does give us more than we can handle. Not maliciously, but intentionally, in love, that His glory may be displayed, that we may have no doubt of who is in control, that people may see His grace and faithfulness shining through our lives. 

And as I surrender these situations to Him, watch him take over and do the impossible, I am filled with joy and peace-so much more than I can handle."