I JUST CANNOT DO IT!

Do you ever look at your circumstances in life and wonder how much more you can take?  Are there times when you’re totally convinced if one more stressful situation was placed on your spiritual plate that you’d surely roll up into fetal position in the corner and have a permanent unrecoverable meltdown?  Whether your everyday life circumstances are just plain hard or you’ve been enduring some kind of hardships, do you find yourself frequently muttering under your breath, “I just cannot do this!” or “I can’t handle this anymore!”

I have been right there with you and there have been days recently when I curled up on the couch, covered my head and cried and laughed and cried some more.  I’m sure my family will remember those emotional outbursts well, but hopefully they learned something through my unnecessary displays of despair.   When we cry out in anger or anguish proclaiming that we just can’t do it anymore, we are definitely right. That’s when God breathes a sigh of relief since He sees that we are finally getting on the right track!  Cracking under the stress of extreme trials has shown me that no matter how hard I try, I will never be able to handle anything without the strength of God Himself.  And even though you think you might be wonder woman, I am here to unequivocally proclaim to you that You cannot do anything in your own strength and supernatural power is only a prayer away.

I certainly have been guilty of believing the lie that I can handle everything in my own strength.  In recent months, our family has gone through the refiner’s fire and just when we think we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the fire just seems to get hotter.  When it looked like one situation was being resolved, at times it would get worse or another trial would just take its place.  Sometimes the intensity of the flames nearly made me want to give up, shrivel up and burn up.  My strength was small because I thought I could endure all of these trials in my own and that’s where I was so wrong.  The Bible says that “If we faint in the day of adversity, our strength is small.” Proverbs 24:10

Of course, God knew all along that I had been mostly relying on myself and on rare occasion would call out to Him in desperation only when I had reached the end of my rope.  I thought I could handle it all on my own so God allowed me to stay in the heat longer. My Father wanted me to grasp the concept that His strength is made perfect in my weakness and I didn’t have to be stressed out and overwhelmed by all the pressures I was facing.  Our God wants us to remember what He told us in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” not our own version which says, “I can do all things in my own strength and will call on God when I get tired.”

When we refuse to rely on God as our refuge and strength and choose to try to handle things on our own because we think we can do a better job, our Father must sometimes keep us in the flame a little longer until we surrender our will to His.  I think I’ve finally gotten to the point where I try to learn what God wants me to learn in a trial as soon as possible so that I can move on to the next lesson, but I still sometimes flunk the test.  Our constant prayer must be, “Jesus, please help me not have to repeat the same lessons over and over!  Help me to ask for your strength and grasp the truths you have for me to learn and not believe the lie that I have the power to do things on my own.”

-Maybe you have endured a long exhausting custody battle where officials do not seem to care about the safety of precious little children. 

-Maybe you have kids that would rather go their own way and follow the destructive road than to follow Christ to the abundant life. 

-Maybe you’ve been deeply betrayed by someone you thought cared about you.

- Maybe you paid some professionals tens of thousands of dollars and they cheated you and took off with all of your money without doing the work they agreed to do. 

-Maybe someone blatantly lied to you or about you in order to gain something from you. 

-Maybe you thought someone was your true friend but they left you just when you were hurting.

-Maybe you have experienced several car repairs over and over and you’re not sure how much more money you will be able to dish out.

Whatever the small "cross" we are called to carry, God is patiently waiting for us to give up the crazy notion that we are in control and that we can handle life on our own. Our loving Father never intended for us to endure trials in our own human frailty, He designed us to depend on His supernatural power to see us through the fire. God loves us and is constantly at work arranging each piece of the puzzle of our life to create a masterpiece through our trials and He wants us to testify of the power of His strength at work in us.  

We must remember that no matter what the circumstances of our life are, that there is nothing we cannot endure when we are depending on His strength instead of our own.   I assure you as my family has experienced the strength of the Lord standing with us during our trials, it is much easier and more joyful to trust in God instead of ourselves.  May you also echo the words found in 2 Timothy 4:17 during those times when you may be tempted to rely on your own strength.