"God won't give you more..."

For the past few months I have been approached by several well intentioned individuals in an attempt to bring encouragement by quoting these well known Christian phrases: “God won’t give you more than you can handle” and “God gave you this burden because you’re strong enough to carry it”. If you are one that has said this, I appreciate the kind attempt at encouragement, but I would like to share my heart with you. I strongly disagree.

First of all, God did not 'give' this burden to me. God is not punishing me nor is this a consequence resulting from my actions. He did allow it to happen, but He did not make it happen. God allows things to happen because He gave each and every human being the beautiful gift of free will. Sometimes as humans we make very poor decisions and abuse that gift, though. When we abuse that sweet freedom, our poor decisions affect everyone around us in one way or another. My struggles for the past few months are a direct result of someone else's sin. There is no blaming God.

I do not believe “God won’t give me more than I can handle”. Though He did not give it to me, I believe God has and will allow me to bear more of a burden than my small, weak, humanness could ever possibly handle. I have experienced, and I still am experiencing, this phenomenon. I also know I am not the only one experiencing a burden "too big". God allows us to go through this because He knows we cannot bear it on our own, therefore we must rely on Him to carry us through it. We must be solely dependent on Him, therefore our relationship is strengthened beyond measure and above all, He is glorified.

I am willing to say that most of us have gone through some very dark times- times of struggling, suffering, and even despair. Though each situation be very different, I believe many of us can share similar feelings and thoughts. Feelings and thoughts of isolation, fear, anxiety and depression. For those struggling with isolation, fear, anxiety, and depression, I want to validate all of those and tell you how I have shared them. They are real, they are harmful, and these things are all from the enemy himself. God’s heart breaks for His children when they are hurting, but His heart smiles when we look to Him for help. He is Abba, Father. He is kind and gentle. His heart is a fountain, constantly overflowing with an outpouring of immeasurable love and grace and mercy. When we are suffering He does not turn away. Instead, He reaches down and waits for us to reach up and take His hand. He wants us to give our burdens Him. He wants to take care of us, but we have to let Him. Satan wants us to face the darkness on our own and fail miserably. He wants us to writhe in a pit of despair while the toxic stenches of sin and death fill our lungs. I would like to tell you some good news though- Jesus has already won the battle and defeated the grave!! He is victorious and we are victorious with Him. Be encouraged!

If you’re thinking all this sounds like crazy talk- you’re right. It is crazy. Crazy love. It’s crazy that someone would want to carry us through something so deep and dark. He allows things to take His children to those deep and dark places just so He can carry us and deepen the bond between us. That is crazy love. Someone loves each and every human being so much that He created each and every single one of us specifically just so we might choose to love Him back. That is crazy love. He gave us each a brain and a free will to think and choose what we so desire. That is crazy love. He loves us each so much that He gave us the option to love Him back, and if we choose to do so we are guaranteed eternal life with Him. That’s crazy love. He loves us so much, He sent His only son away from His perfect presence and into the sin-filled earth as a perfect sacrifice so we could simply have the choice to spend eternity with Him. That is crazy love. He loves us so much, it’s crazy. What did we do to deserve that kind of crazy, radical, passionate love? We existed. If you’re thinking I’m crazy, you’re right. And so is He. He wants to carry us through our trials, He wants to share His goodness with us, and most of all He wants to spend eternity with us. That is true, radical love. His love is everything.

A flower in my front yard.