What Can We Handle?

Life is much like a plane ride. There are times when the travel is smooth and we function with ease. But there are also times of turbulence when the captain turns on the “Fasten Seat Belts” sign. If you are flying and the turbulence last more than  about five or ten minutes, you can feel the anxiety levels going up all around you. In real life those times often last a whole lot longer.

We are hit with one thing after another, knocking us this way and that way. Perhaps we take the first few jolts in stride and then the next group with gritty determination. But if the turbulence continues beyond what we feel is some reasonable time, we begin to think, “This is too much,” or “I’m about at my limit,” and eventually we may get to, “I can’t handle this.”

 It might be in a marriage. It might be on the job. In might be in the work of the ministry or in discipling relationships. It might be with health problems. But inside many of us have some kind of meter that indicates how much we can take and how much goes beyond the pale, and once the line is crossed, the alarm goes off and we are ready to bail out.

It is surely true that any of us can over-commit and have to back up and let go of some things, but I am talking here about an attitude toward what life brings us and how we often set ourselves up to judge how much is too much. 

But, which thought should rule us: “I can’t handle this” or “I can do all things through him who gives me strength”?

 Focus Scriptures

   

Philip. 4:13  NAS

    I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

1 Cor. 10:13

    No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.