“When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Have you ever said or heard someone say, “God never gives you more than you can handle?”

Recently I read a story with a very different twist to this saying, “God never gives you more than you can handle.”

I was reading a story about Terry-Jo Myers who at the age of twenty-one was stricken with interstitial cystitis.  This is a very rare and very painful bladder disease.  She battled this disease for eleven years until new medications finally brought her relief.

Life without constant pain brought hope to Terry-Jo, a hope of returning to the LPGA tour.  She began her assault at a comeback only to suffer not one, but two serious back injuries that required two surgeries.

Terry-Jo is healthy now, but instead of attacking the golf course she is attacking the speakers’ circuit.  She is constantly telling her story in the hope of encouraging others who face difficulties.

It was at one of these speaking events that someone said to her, “God never gives you more than you can handle.”
Terry-Jo disagreed with the comment saying, “It’s always more that than you can handle!  You are never supposed to get to where you don’t need God.”

Terry-Jo’s response has stayed with me for some time now. She has made me look at an old cliché in a different light.  If I could handle every situation that life throws I wouldn’t need God, nor would you.  But life isn’t that easy, is it?  The truth is, there is no way we can handle the challenges of this life on our own, no matter how hard we try.  The reason we find only one set of footprints in the sands of our life, is not because life didn’t give us more than we could handle, but because it DID and we needed the strength and comfort of God to carry us.

Do you have something in your life that you can’t handle?  Do you have a problem you can’t solve?  Praise God for it!  Thank God for it!  Remember the Words God said to Paul after Paul had pleaded with God to remove a “thorn” in his flesh.  God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Thank God because His grace really is sufficient.    Let Him be your strength today.

"Blessed by God to be a Blessing"

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3).

As managers and stewards of all that God has entrusted to us, we have been blessed abundantly.  Though perhaps some have been blessed more than others, all of us - without exception - have been and continue to be the recipients of God's blessings.

We are entering into our annual stewardship emphasis entitled, "Blessed by God to be a Blessing."  During this time, we will consider how God has blessed us, the reasons for God's blessings, and what our response should be to God's goodness.

On a daily basis, God provides for us.  God gives the seed, along with rain and sunshine to cause the seed to grow.  God gives health, strength and life itself.  God gives wealth and the ability to acquire that which rightfully belongs to Him.  And God gives grace and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ to all who look to Him in believing faith.

Did you ever stop to consider why God blesses us so abundantly?  He does so for one simple yet profound reason: Because He loves us.  In fact, the prophet Jeremiah tells us that God has loved us with an "everlasting love," that is, His love knows no beginning and no end.  It is God's love for us that causes Him to provide for us all that we have.  And Christ demonstrated the Father's love by dying on the cross of Calvary to redeem us "while we still were sinners" (Rom. 5:8).

What should be our response to God's love and provision?  In spite of King David's observation that all things come from God, some might conclude that because of their lifestyle, family background or social standing, they deserve God's beneficial treatment.  Others might reason that their good works entitle them to be the recipients of God's blessings.  But all of our noble efforts and supposedly righteous deeds, when done in our strength, amount to no more than what the prophet Isaiah called "a filthy cloth."

Still others might conclude that God made a mistake in determining their place on the economic spectrum, so they spend their time and energy trying to help God correct that error.  Whether fretting daily over financial matters, diligently searching for a "get-rich-quick" scheme, or engaging in some activity that will allow them to win large sums of money, their dissatisfaction with God's provision causes them to get sidetracked spiritually.

The mature Christian, however, realizes that God is the Source of everything, that God owns everything, and that all that we have is in one way or another a blessing from God. The mature Christian seeks ways to use God's gifts to bless God and to be a blessing to others.  And the mature Christian accepts with a spirit of contentment and thanksgiving what God has provided.

As you consider how God has blessed your life, please seek His direction concerning how you should respond.  Remember, we have been "blessed by God to be a blessing."  Or as one anonymous author put it so succinctly, "The greatest blessing comes to the one who freely gives and expects nothing in return.”

Prayerfully yours in Christ,