Daily Delight
Do you ever feel like you have been given more hardship than you can handle? I have been there too, and I am no stranger to panic attacks. People might assure you that “God will never give you more than you can handle.” If you are like me, though, that adage might make you feel even worse since the weights you have been given truly seem to be heavier than you can lift! So, here’s some encouragement for us all from God's Word!
In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul tells the Corinthians about the major suffering he had to endure and how much comfort Christ had given him in the midst of it all. In 2 Corinthians 1:8b, he says, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself" (ESV).
If you feel utterly burdened beyond your strength, you are in good company. God really might be giving you more than you can handle. Remember, though, that even Christ humbled himself to the point that He needed help carrying the beam of His cross!
Did you know there’s something far worse than feeling really, really low?
Look at this chilling verse in 2 Chronicles 26:16 (ESV): “But when he was strong, he became proud, to his destruction.”
As we read about King Uzziah’s flourishing, we might be happy for him until we see just how much it changed him. Then, we start to realize maybe wealth and success is not the best thing for everyone.
I think the Bible suggests that self-reliant pride is actually the worst thing that can happen to us. And, if our weighty circumstances are keeping us from pride and causing us to rely on the Lord, maybe they are not our ball and chain but actually our path to freedom.
If you feel as if you have been given more than you can handle, remember this: Christ took the burden of your sin already. The biggest weight is GONE! These lesser trials, though they might feel like (or literally be!) a death sentence, can never destroy you. Pride can, though.
Praise God for the weights that are stripping you of your self-sufficiency and causing you to lean on Him!
About the Author
Hope Henchey
Hope is a 27-year-old currently based in the suburbs of Tampa who loves and needs Jesus desperately. She has a passion for inviting others to read the Bible for themselves...beginning with the four little people she gets to disciple every day and call her Mommy! Her husband of eight years, Peter, is a blue-collar entrepreneur who seeks to be a light for Jesus in the workplace. They are both obsessed with Romans 8 and dream of growing their family through adoption someday.
Hope loves being outside, and her family enjoys traveling around the southeast in their RV. As an Enneagram 7, Hope has many random passions and interests, including but not limited to Coke Icees, clean sketch comedy, dip pen calligraphy, group fitness classes, theology, home birth, spaetzle, urbanism, bullet journaling, curricula-making, and much more. Domesticity is not her greatest strength, and her home is very messy, but being placed in roles that don't come naturally has been a major way that God is sanctifying her.
She posts encouragement on Instagram @called.beloved.kept and write