It is more than I can handle.

Sometimes, life just feels overwhelming.

Have you ever gotten to the point in your life where the pain was to much and you cried out those words, I just can’t do this ? Lately, those words have been ringing in my heart a little more each day.

There is a phrase within our Christian culture that I have recently taken issue with:

God will never give you more than you can handle.

I know that the motivation behind that statement comes from a hope we hold in our hearts to pass on to someone in times of great trouble. We long to bring comfort and peace to people hurting. [I get that.]

But the truth is, as I gaze over the past ten years of my life, I am finding that statement completely false.

There has been way more than I could handle.

I couldn’t handle being broken.

I couldn’t handle being crushed.

I couldn’t handle being defeated.

I couldn’t handle being lost.

Really, those words: God never gives you more than you can handle are nothing more than a cheap mis-interpertation of scripture. Because when I start to believe that God would never allow me to walk through something I could not handle on my own strength, I begin a process in my heart that leads to nothing more than pride in my heart.

Pride tells us:

We don’t need a God to rescue us.

We don’t need a God to redeem us.

We don’t need a God to save us.

Pride loves us to leave us convinced we never have a need to surrender.

I have an honest confession that for the past few months I have misunderstood the way of thinking about surrender. I have been praying and seeking God to teach me to surrender my heart. And the other day I was telling a friend of mine that I really believe I’m starting to see what that process of surrender really looks like.

I honestly feel I  have believed in the IF = THEN process of surrender.

Like, IF I surrender [this]….THEN God will…[do that]

Perhaps I’m in the in-between stage right now of surrender right now. Teetering on the edge…will I really surrender?

But for now, surrender is looking more like this:

God, I can’t do this.

God, this is more than I can handle.

God, even if you don’t do [this] I will still praise you, serve you and love you.

As I have released those words to Him, a supernatural process begins to happen in me.

I can begin to see God as a sympathetic Savior. 

A perfect picture of this process in Mark 14:35 [MSG]:

“Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out: “Papa, Father, you can—can’t you?—get me out of this. Take this cup away from me. But please, not what I want—what do you want?”

Sorrow is not a sin. This was more than Jesus could handle. So He cried out to His Father and asked Him to take away this pain. We should never feel bad that life feels overwhelming.

Pain is not a sign of weakness. In this verse we see Jesus pain come through…not His weakness. I think we easily confuse the two. Pain is a necessary part of the process.

Surrender doesn’t have a glimpse of pride. The power of God is released through the words: “not what I want…but what you want.”

I’m thinking surrender looks more like a process of realizing there is going to be much more in this life that we cannot do on our own strength.

The truth is, God never gives us more than we can handle -without Him.

The Christmas season often leaves us with a greater awareness of our troubles. While its easy to want to push over those feelings during the “most wonderful time of the year”, we cannot allow our faith to be intimidated by our troubles.

God is close to those who need Him.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted  and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” -Psalm 34:17