More Than We Can Handle

We have all heard it many times. People will say that God will not give us more than we can handle. That is simply not true. I probably wrote about this in a previous blog, but I was reminded of this truth again today. We have certainly had more than we could handle. Like it says in 2 Cor. 1:8-9, we thought we would never live through it. God wants to teach us to rely on him, but apparently I am a very slow learner.

Like the author of The One year Book of Hope says: "The ethos of our world is to bury our natural sense of inadequacy and inability in an avalanche of pep talks, telling ourselves, I can do it. I just need to believe in myself. .... It helps to stop kidding ourselves. Rather than seeking to become more self-confidant, we need to strive to become more God-reliant, and if we do that, we have to root out our desire to appear altogether and in control. This desire has deep roots."

I need to keep praying that I will become more God-dependent.

The picture I posted reminded me of the song,"Consider the lilies, they toil not nor spin, they bask in God's sunshine and drink in God's rain, if God cares for them in such marvelous ways, how much more, how much more will he care for me and supply every need every day." God had reminded me of that song several times as we were going through Renee's last stretch of treatments, those four months in NYC. We had so many people praying for us during that time as a result of our weekly updates and I really felt the power of those prayers.

Now we are trying to slug our way through this path of grief and all the other trauma. Last Saturday all of sudden the words of the hymn came to my mind, "Ask the Savior to help you, strengthen, comfort and keep you, He is willing to aid you, He will carry you through." But the very next minute I couldn't remember what it was. So God had to give them to me again the next day at exactly the same spot and maybe almost the same time. Wow! Why do I always try so hard to do it in my own strength? Why have I not learned my lesson yet?