God WILL give you more than you can handle

There is a saying that I've heard frequently since I started following Christ: "God will never give you more than you can handle". Is this true? There is a verse that says, "God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able" (1 Cor 10:13). But this verse is talking about God giving us a way of escape from temptations. So, will God give us more than we can handle? I say yes. Consider this:
2 Corinthians 1:8-10--- "...we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us..."
So God brought something into Paul's life that was "above strength". Why? So that he would not trust in himself but "in God Who raises the dead".

If I'm training a powerlifter who can lift 350 pounds, and I only give him 135 pounds to squat, he doesn't need me. I would just be sitting there counting reps. But, if I give that powerlifter 375 pounds to squat, now he needs me to help him. He may not realize he needs me until he gets under the weight and it feels too heavy. God does this...He gives us things that are above our strength so that we will trust Him and cry out to Him for help.

By the way: Humility...God reveals to us how small, frail, weak, helpless, and useless we are, while showing us how huge, strong, powerful, and mighty He is! Seeing this helps us to understand Jesus' words "apart from Me you can do NOTHING" (Jn 15:5). All of a sudden everything is above my strength and I NEED JESUS!!! The Lord said "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor 12:9).....So thank the Lord for giving us more than we can handle so that we might learn to trust Him and so that His strength would be clearly seen! And thank the Lord for revealing to us that we are NOT sufficient of ourselves to do anything, but that He can make us sufficient by His power (2 Cor 3:5)! We need HIM to live, move, breath, and work! We need HIM for everything!

More examples: Judges 7--God gave Gideon a task that was more than he could handle so that HE would get the glory. "the people who are with you are too many for Me to deliver the midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me'".
Exodus 3 and 4-- God called Moses to a task that was above his strength, but declared to him, "I will certainly be with you".
Romans 4:16-25-- Abraham was given a promise that he would have a child and be a father of many nations even though his body was old and dead and his wife's womb was dead. This was above Abraham's strength, but he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God!
I don't have time to tell of Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets (especially Daniel in the lion's den)!

So let us stop striving for comfort by blocking every hard thing that may come into our lives that seems like it is more than we can handle....But instead, cry out to the Living God!
Let us stop living lives that our flesh can handle...instead let us step out on God's word and learn to trust in the God Who raises the dead!
Let us stop complaining about the lot God has given us...but instead be content because He will not leave us nor forsake us!
Let us stop using common sense, walking-by-sight arguments to excuse us from obeying God...but instead be doers of His word while expecting God to give me things that are above my strength so that HE GETS GLORY!!!

Please leave a comment if you have any added thought...especially if you think I may be seeing this incorrectly.

China?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/metro/2010-03/17/content_9602273.htm

Go to the website above to see an article from China Daily (China's official English language newspaper). It's the testimony of a university student who converted to Christianity.

Now if you've been following China for any length of time you might be picking your jaw up off the floor. Get this:

The official and highly controlled newspaper of the Communist government is featuring a story of a religious conversion of an exceptionally bright university student who found meaninglessness in existence apart from God.
He was given a Bible by a colleague, and the reader is not led to believe this is a bad thing.
He converted to Christ after reading it and now is experiencing fulfillment.
And he's now happily attending an unregistered church (i.e house church).
Whoa.

We know the church is unregistered because yesterday the China Daily ran an article on house churches that are thriving in Beijing and featured that church. In fact, this particular unregistered church has actually been allowed to purchase property for a church building.

This doesn't discount the fact that persecution still occurs in China. But we need to let this news soak in. This little article is huge. God is doing something incredible in that great nation.

Keep praying. (I got this article from desiringgod.org blog)

Francis Chan

"Let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, so that they will not be unfruitful" --Titus 3:14



"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it."

Great High Priest

Hey guys....I was really stirred up this morning when reading through Hebrews. Over two-thousand years ago Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, so that He by the grace of God might taste death for everyone (Heb 2:9)! And we have a promise, in John 14:1-3, that Jesus is coming back one day to recieve us to Himself! But what about now? What is Jesus doing now? What has He been doing for the past two-thousand years? "the the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God."--Mk 16:19...Over a month later: "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God.."--Acts 2:33... A little while later: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." --Acts 7:56...A little while later: "Christ Jesus is the one who died; more than that, who was raised; who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."--Romans 8:34... So then, Where is He now? At the right hand of the throne of God! What is He doing? "interceding for us"...Because Jesus is at the right hand of the throne of God and He always lives (that means forever..He is alive right now..He will never die) to plead on our behalf, we can be saved to the uttermost..completely..to the very end!!--Hebrews 7:23-25. Praise the Lord, Jesus is alive!! And He has become our Great High Priest who has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Heb 9:24). He was murdered for our sins (taking the wrath of God), buried, risen from the dead on the third day, ascended on high, and now He ever lives to intercede for us...so we can be saved ETERNALLY, Kept by God's power...in other words: We cannot lose this salvation, if Jesus is our High Priest!!
Listen to the words of the song below...See if you can find the many Scriptures that back up these words.

Lazy Sloth

Calling all boys: "act like men"!!---1 Cor 16:13

Quit being boys, be men! Quit being soft, be soldiers! Work! Work hard! Be diligent! Stop being lazy! Stop being sluggish! Stop being slothful! Laziness is sin! It will kill you! It will kill your walk with God!

Prov 6:6-11- "Go to the ant you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?" A man doesn't need someone one constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure he is working hard.

Proverbs 13:4- "The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich." A desire is not enough...you need diligence.

Proverbs 20:13- "Do not love sleep"

Proverbs 12:27- "The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man's precious possession." A lazy man may seem diligent because he went "hunting", but he won't cook it. Diligence is a precious possession...Do you possess it?

"Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy"

The letter below was written in 1535 by William Tyndale. He is writing from prison, having been detained for believing the Scriptures and translating them into the English language. Let us believe, as he did, that Christ is worth our sufferings! He is WORTHY! Let us seek to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowhip of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10). Let us even rejoice to be partakers of His sufferings (1 Peter 4:13).

"I beg your lordship, and that of the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here through the winter, you will request the commissary to have the kindness to send me, from the goods of mine which he has, a warmer cap; for I suffer greatly from cold in the head, and am afflicted by a perpetual catarrh, which is much increased in this cell; a warmer coat also, for this which I have is very thin; a piece of cloth too to patch my leggings. My overcoat is worn out; my shirts are also worn out. He has a woolen shirt, if he will be good enough to send it. I have also with him leggings of thicker cloth to put on above; he has also warmer night-caps. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening; it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark. But most of all I beg and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the commissary, that he will kindly permit me to have the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary, that I may pass the time in that study. In return may you obtain what you most desire, so only that it be for the salvation of your soul. But if any other decision has been taken concerning me, to be carried out before winter, I will be patient, abiding the will of God, to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ: whose spirit (I pray) may ever direct your heart." Amen W. Tindalus

"Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented--- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith...." Heb 11:36-39

The Ends of the Earth

Isaiah 49:5-6--- "the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him.....indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

Reasons to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth:
-Christ has been given the nations, the ends of the earth, as His inheritance. Psalm 2:7-8, Revelation 5:9...And we have been given the task of taking the message of the cross to the nations (2 Cor 5:18-21)...Anything less than ALL nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues is too small for Jesus!!
-How will they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? Romans 10:13-14.... and if they do not believe Christ they will not be saved from the wrath of God! John 3:36
-Because He told us so...Mt 28:19-20, Mark 16:15.

"All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your Name" Ps 86:9