Hammer on Anvil '

A dear friend took me aside at church Sunday and asked me to blog about this topic. Probably many of my readers have heard someone say, "God will never give you more than you can handle." Perhaps someone said it to you after you lost a loved one. Or maybe when you were in the throes of a nasty divorce. Or when your child had just been diagnosed with autism.

Though I don't doubt that people have good intentions when they use this phrase, the problem is that it is not scriptural. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God will not give us more than we can handle.

Then where did this awful phrase come from? Probably 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure (New Living Translation).

Paul is talking about temptation here -- not suffering or overwhelming circumstances. Things happen in life over which we have no control. But we do have control over how we respond to temptation. God promises to give us victory in times of temptation; He does NOT promise that nothing will ever happen to us that we "can't handle."

The issue here is that what we think we can handle, and what God KNOWS we can handle, are often very different things. Last year, I (and many others) prayed for months for a man to be healed from Stage 4 cancer. He was only 42 years old when he died, leaving behind his wife and 3 young children. Did his wife think this was more than she could handle? YES. But her faith in God has enabled her to persevere through this dark time in her life. She and her children are learning that God is their source of strength and hope.

Dear friends, only God knows what we can handle. We may believe we could never cope with a given situation, only to find that when actually faced with it, God came in like a flood and we made it through. Sometimes dire situations are the only thing that awaken us to the fact that we need to depend on God for everything. Acts 17:28 says, "In Him we live and move and have our being." Yet we sometimes live our lives without giving God a second thought -- let alone making Him first in our lives.

Recently I was going through a dark, scary time in which I felt hopeless and powerless. In the middle of the night, God spoke Isaiah 41:10 to me: 

"So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." 

I fell back to sleep in peace, knowing He would sustain me and see me through.

If you are going through something right now that is so overwhelming that you feel like you're drowning, know first of all that it's okay to feel desperate! Remember David in Psalm 22? He cried, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Jesus later quoted that gut-wrenching sense of abandonment as He hung on the Cross.

Even when you can't sense God's presence and it feels like He's a million miles away, be assured that He is right there with you. Suffering is never pointless in His economy. Be still, and know that He is God.

"A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more" (Matthew 2:18).

When my husband's sister died many years ago at the age of 39, I remember his mother's bitter words, "No parent should ever have to bury their child."

Though I can certainly understand her sentiment, I also understand that we live in a sick, fallen world. Things happen over which we have no control, like what happened at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. Like what happened at Virginia Tech just seven years ago, and at Columbine High School in 1999.

The background of the Scripture I opened with is no less horrific. Herod the Great, in his quest for greatness and his fear that the birth of Jesus would threaten his position, ordered the massacre of all baby boys two years of age and under. I vividly remember Franco Zeffirelli's rendering of this scene in the mini-series "Jesus of Nazareth." Roman soldiers went through the tiny village of Bethlehem with swords drawn, carrying out Herod's monstrous edict. If a mother refused to surrender her child, she was run through as well as the child.

In the Old Testament, Pharoah ordered the midwives to kill baby boys at birth, to cut back on the Israelite population.

It is a mystery why God permits such vicious depravity, particularly when innocent children are the victims. It is a mystery that He loved us so passionately that He gave His only Son -- the most innocent of all -- to die an unspeakably inhumane death. Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today magazine, says, "You would have thought that the Power and the Glory would have stepped in with thunderbolts when the world conspired to kill his Innocent One. But this God did not do anything then either. And the Son did not rage at the cruel injustice and the waste of a good life at the hands of evil men. All he could seem to say was a prayer that his murderers, who he said did not know what they were doing, be forgiven."

Last month, a 33-year-old man left his 22-month-old son helplessly strapped in a car seat in sweltering heat. Even more monstrous is the fact that he intended for the child to die. While his son was suffocating in the car, the man was sexting a teenage girl.

Just last week, a Malaysia Airlines 777 was shot down by terrorists. All 280 passengers and the crew of 15 perished.

When we are faced with atrocities such as this, our first inclination should not be to try to make sense of it. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" It is also not our responsibility to try to defend God when non-believers taunt us with, "Where was your God when this happened?" God needs no defending.

Our response is illustrated very simply in Romans 12:15; we are to weep with those who weep, and mourn with those who mourn. Pray for the families who are affected. That precious little toddler has grandparents and aunts and uncles. The air travelers were moms, dads, brothers, sisters and children, and those they left behind are in the throes of grief.

In times like this, it helps to remember why Jesus came into this sin-sick world. Yes, He came to die a horrible death. But Mark Galli reminds us it didn't end there:

And the Innocent One wasn't done—far from it. He looked at mad humanity and bloody death and said, Enough is enough. Three days after the world had done its dirtiest work on the most innocent of all, he rolled back the stone and emerged from the grave (smiling, I like to think), as if to say that the death of the innocent is not the last word. Not even close.

Are you a people pleaser?

It is obvious when reading Paul's epistle to the Corinthians that his one ruling passion is to please God. Not his parents, not his extended family, not even his fellow disciples. It's not that he was a pain in the neck and deliberately set out to displease anyone. But when your passion is truly to please God, you follow Him and you let everything else go. Oswald Chambers calls it "a personal sovereign preference for Jesus."

We have all known people pleasers. I know a pastor's wife who spent her entire life stressed to the max because appearances were the most important thing to her. She was unable to truly have fun and appreciate loved ones because she constantly obsessed about what everyone else was thinking. Her grown granddaughter came to visit her once from out of state. Instead of being overjoyed at this rare opportunity to be with her granddaughter, the woman was horrified to learn that the granddaughter didn't bring a DRESS for church. Nice slacks and a blouse weren't good enough. If someone didn't approve of the way her granddaughter was dressed, it would somehow reflect badly on her.

How much easier life is when we seek first to please God! If we are walking in obedience, we need not be concerned about what others think.

Oswald Chambers compares Paul to a musician who "does not heed the approval of the audience if he can catch the look of approval from his Master." I remember very vividly a high school band concert that I attended. The director was top-notch, and I wondered what he was doing teaching high school kids when he seemed way over-qualified. But this was his passion, and the students loved him. He demanded excellence, and they longed to give it. At this particular concert, the band had just performed Dvorak's New World Symphony. The crowd burst into applause. The director briefly acknowledged the crowd, but then turned to his students and bowed. There was hardly a dry eye in the house as this humble man praised his students for their excellent performance. His approval obviously meant more to them than the crowd's applause.

This should be our goal as followers of Christ. I encourage you this week to ask yourself, "Do I want to 'perform' so I can gain approval from others, or does my love for God motivate me to do my very best?"

"I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

What do you think of when you hear the words "abundant life"? For some it may mean long life -- a literal abundance of years. For others it may mean abundant possessions and wealth. Still others may think of a life of doing only what they enjoy, whether that be travel or sports or education.

For those who believe in Jesus, every day can overflow with abundant life. Even seemingly ordinary days become far from ordinary when they are infused with the life of Christ. Days spent cleaning and doing laundry. Days when your kids are sick and you think you will run screaming from the house if you have to clean up any more vomit or change any more dirty diapers. Days at work that seem humdrum, with nothing new on the horizon.

Genuine life always reproduces. Psalm 1 says this about anyone who delights in the Lord and meditates on His law day and night:

He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

Everything we do can be a sacrament if we do it with the proper perspective. When we keep in mind that we belong to God, and allow His life to pour through us and touch others, life is not ordinary. When we are in tune with Him and listen for His voice throughout the day, He will give us opportunities to love and serve others on His behalf.

 This week we celebrate the 238th birthday of our nation. Picnics, parades, and of course fireworks displays are all part of how many of us celebrate.

Pledging allegiance to our flag and singing our national anthem are fine, but we Christians need to ask ourselves where our FIRST allegiance lies.

Patriotism, I'm afraid, has become tantamount to a religion in this country, particularly since 9/11. Even at professional ball games now, "God Bless America" is sung right along with the national anthem. It's ironic to me that prayer is not permitted in schools, yet entire stadiums full of people are expected to join in singing this song, almost as if it's a good luck charm (if we sing "God Bless America," we'll be covered and will never again experience the horrors of 9/11).

Are you more devoted to God or to your country? Before you answer too quickly, take time to consider the following questions:

• Are you prejudiced against immigrants, even though the Bible admonishes us to embrace them? (See Lev. 19:33,34, for starters)
• Do you disrespect the President in public venues (like Facebook) rather than praying for him as we are commanded to do in 1 Timothy 2?
• Do you get your worldview from the Bible, or from Fox News/Bill O'Reilly/Rush Limbaugh?

If you answered "yes" to any or all of these questions, it's quite possible your allegiance is more to your country than to God. A biblical worldview is not gained by watching Fox News or listening to Rush Limbaugh. A biblical worldview is formed by saturating yourself with the Word of God. Yet I hear people quote their favorite sources as if they are quoting from the Bible.

A number of times I have confronted people who profess to be Christian, yet constantly disparage the President (whoever he happens to be at the time). I remind them that, as Christians, we are called on to pray for our President. The usual response I get is, "Well I pray for him, BUT..." and they proceed with a litany of everything they don't like about him.

There is no "but" here, folks. You either obey God and pray for the President, or you degrade him. Consider James 3:11: "Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? "I know from experience that it is nearly impossible to berate someone if you have been interceding on their behalf. When you pray for the President, you are asking God to work, and trusting Him for the outcome. Being critical of the President shows you are not praying OR trusting God.

And speaking of immigration, here is a good example of prejudice. A local businessman a few years ago posted something on Facebook that my husband and I found particularly disturbing. Immigration was in the news at the time, as it often is, and stricter laws were being considered.This man thought it would be a good idea to dig a moat around the border and fill it with crocodiles -- that way, if anyone tried to cross the border, they would meet their "just fate." I almost threw up when I read it -- because this man purports to be a Christ follower. My husband called him on his hateful post, and was soundly dismissed and told to "lighten up."

The Bible has plenty to say about embracing strangers (Lev. 19: 33-34; Deut. 10:18; Ex. 23:9; Matt. 25:35). We ourselves are "aliens and strangers" according to 1 Peter 2:11. We must remember our citizenship is in heaven, not America.

Ed Stetzer summarizes a healthy worship/nationalism balance in an article titled "Rightful Revelry: Cautions Concerning Combining Patriotism and Worship":

So, be patriotic, love and celebrate your country. And love Jesus and worship God. But be VERY careful when they are near one another.

Enjoy your holiday, but remember our true freedom is in Jesus Christ.