God won't give you more than you can handle ...

Yes, interesting quote. I've heard this said to me throughout my life.  When times seemed hopeless really hard, God won't give you more than you can handle right?  But isn't that the point of it? That times can seem hopeless, but some where, some how, you pick yourself up, you find the strength to pull through and move on? Isn't that where your faith comes in and saves you? So what is it about this statement that really works for people?

I did a search on those exact words: God won't give you more than you can handle and this article came up. I read it and I have to agree with it. The truth is, God will give you more than you can handle.

A couple of days ago, my faith was tested. I too was wondering where my faith had gone.  How was I expected to move past this day of despair,  feelings of making a big mistake, regret possibly, that my choices were all wrong, and looking towards the future with no hope, that I could possibly be making the biggest mistake of my life?  I had lost my faith and had nothing positive to say about the situation. How did I get to this place? Was it Satan rearing his ugly head?

Here I am 2 days later and I can think positive about my future. So what was that? A bad day? Depressed day? Hopeless day? Yuck! We all have those days where you just don't feel right, you're down, things don't feel right and life just seems hopeless. I went to church Sunday morning thinking, okay God, give me some faith right now because I feel like I've run out. I'm on "E" and need a full refill.  And I left there thinking, hmmmm I feel the same as when I came in this morning.  Where was my faith? Did God give me more than I could handle? Did I think that just because I was in the house of the Lord that my faith would miraculously be restored?

It took me a few days, but I'm glad to see I still have my faith, I feel positive about the future and I feel like I can deal with it. I feel strong, where as I didn't a few days ago. I felt weak and mentally just checked out for the rest of the day because that was the only direction I could go.  I just could not look towards the future with any positive thoughts. We all have days like that, bad days, feeling beat down, feeling like no matter what you do, it still feels hopeless, like there is no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel and feeling like you just don't have the strength.

By the end of the day I was feeling more like myself again. So what was it that had me thinking positive again? My family. This direct quote from that  article  sums up exactly where my mind was at the end of the day. Thankful for my family that with God's love and my faith in him, we as a family can move forward ... together!

When we become aware that life will give us more than we can handle and come to grips with this, we find a promise: God is faithful to meet us in the mess and in the pain.

But, if we’re honest, even this can seem like a tired old phrase. Because when it really hurts, God can seem so far away. This is where you and I come in. We need each other to move ahead, and we need far more than tired old phrases.

In times when life becomes unmanageable, we need to be willing to walk alongside one another. When we do this, we put flesh and bone on the person of Jesus. We can be with one another in the midst of suffering, helping each other carry the weight. Which means, that we, as the Body of Christ, have an opportunity.

When we are willing to sit in the pain, to walk with one another when life’s path is difficult and to shoulder one another’s burdens when they are too heavy, we become an embodied promise. We become living proof that while life can sometimes be too much, through the goodness of our loving of God displayed within us, we can move forward together.