Today’s Reading: John 16:12 (NIV)
12 [Jesus said,] “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”
Good morning!
It has been said that God will never give you more than you can bear. Do you believe this? If you lost a loved one this week, that statement may not feel very real to you right now. If you lost your home in the Hurricanes Katrina and Ike, maybe you would beg to differ. Maybe you’ve lost your job, and now you are wondering whether you will have a home to live in, especially with the news of a Federal bailout of the banking industry. Is this too much for you to bear?
Most people are born with an insatiable curiosity. We want to know what’s coming, when it’s coming, and how it will impact our lives. When we’re young, we dream about what we will be when we grow up! We long to finish school, take our first job, and find true love. We think about getting married, settling down, and having children. As we get older, we begin to try to picture what life will be like when we retire; we worry about where we will live, and if our children will care enough to be there to help us. We wonder if we’ve saved enough money to live on for forty plus years; we pray that we’ll not have to suffer from cancer or another dreaded disease, but we will peacefully pass on in our sleep. We worry and wonder and fret about the things yet to be. If you could know for sure how your earthly life will unfold from beginning to end, would you really want to?
Jesus knew what was coming. He is the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. He knew the exact moment in time when He would hang on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for an imperfect humanity. He knows the exact moment when He will return to claim His people once and for all. Jesus knew the future would be far too overwhelming for you and I to understand it completely, at this moment in time; and He said so.
Our daughter Rachel hung a plaque in her family room last summer, after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. It says: God doesn’t give you more than you can handle; He helps you handle what you’ve been given. There is a lot about the future that we do not understand. We can choose to wonder and worry or we can choose to hope and pray, placing our faith and trust in the One who sees all, knows all, and loves us like no one else can. We can place our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, no matter where we are or what we face. He is our Promise Keeper.
Grace and peace,
Deb Spaulding
Faith UMC - St. Charles, MO
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