There's a popular saying that goes, "God never gives us more than we can handle." I've come to reject that and not see it as true at all. First off, I don't believe He gives pain and suffering. Pain and suffering are the fruit of a fallen world held in the power of sin. They are companions to some degree of all of us. Instead of Him giving us these two, I see it as what He allows to touch our lives. Sometimes very deeply. Such was the case with Job. Secondly, if He only allowed what we could handle, then our strength would be sufficient to deal with it. Anyone who has walked "through the valley and the shadow of death" knows this is not so. He sometimes allows hardships beyond our ability to deal with.....but not beyond His. And He wants us to know that.
Verse 1:20 in Job comes after several verses describing terrible events that had befallen him. The great loss of property, crops, health, and finally, of his children. All He could do at the final report was to fall on his knees before His God. Pain had come, and it had come in clusters. And it brought many friends with it. Some tangible, such as Job's "comforters," and others not, but even more painful to deal with. Have you been there? Are you there now? Take heart. Press on. It's not His destination for you.
The first year of my walking through the desert of my divorce and having to step out of ministry was the most painful time of my life, particularly over a several month period. I was hit with wave after wave of hardship and heartache. Financial, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Like Paul, I was "tempted to despair even of life. Pain, and more pain had come. In clusters. And it had brought seemingly endless friends.
Verse 1:20 in Job comes after several verses describing terrible events that had befallen him. The great loss of property, crops, health, and finally, of his children. All He could do at the final report was to fall on his knees before His God. Pain had come, and it had come in clusters. And it brought many friends with it. Some tangible, such as Job's "comforters," and others not, but even more painful to deal with. Have you been there? Are you there now? Take heart. Press on. It's not His destination for you.
The first year of my walking through the desert of my divorce and having to step out of ministry was the most painful time of my life, particularly over a several month period. I was hit with wave after wave of hardship and heartache. Financial, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Like Paul, I was "tempted to despair even of life. Pain, and more pain had come. In clusters. And it had brought seemingly endless friends.
I can't describe to you how dark and hopeless everything seemed to me. I didn't see how I could bear it all. In fact, I knew that I couldn't. So, I had a choice. I could just stop pressing on in faith and lie down on the side of the road that life had put me on. That's what I wanted to do. It is not what He would let me do. He hadn't authored what had happened to me, but He had allowed it, and He would, if I would trust Him, turn it for good. So, I didn't stop there. Though my spiritual legs and feet felt like they were encased in the enemy's cement, I went on, one laborious step at a time. But in His strength, I did go on. Pain and its friends were real. He was more real. Yes, there were times I questioned, even doubted His goodness, but each time, He brought me back to Himself. In worship. And I kept walking.
I thought I had reached my "breaking point" and I was sure I'd gone as far as I could. I was to learn that in Him, I have the grace and strength to get past even what I believed was my breaking point and press on with Him and into Him. So do you. The next months didn't get easier, but the sense of His presence grew ever greater. And He worked in the midst of my life wreckage. Doors that I believed shut for good opened. His works of restoration steadily developed. I was discovering what it meant to be able to do "all things in Christ." I had always believed He was Almighty intellectually, now, in the darkness, I was experiencing that He truly was, and who and what He remains. Chris Tiegreen says that "in the dark, Job trusted what he'd learned in the light." In the places of desolation that He may allow, in the deep darkness He may lead us into, we must dare to trust all that we learned of Him in the light. By His grace, we can. You can. Pain comes in clusters and brings friends. They mean to break you. He means to make you. He will. Press on. One step at a time. He will take you to where He leads you. His best and deepest quality of life always begins with your next step....with Him.
Blessings,
Blessings,
Pastor O
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