More Than You Can Handle

There is SO much good stuff in Perry Noble’s book and there is SO much more we can learn from David’s life too. So I only got to write two of the devos this week, but I easily could have written more! I wanted to share with you a little bit more that you can maybe go and do once you return home. Maybe it will help the spiritual high of this trip to last a little bit longer. If you read through this, share your thoughts with me. Send me an email or fb message or a good old fashioned phone call :)

Did I ever tell you about the crazy adventures Jeff, Hil and I had going to Georgia for the Catalyst conference last October? Jeff ‘borrowed’ a pumpkin from outside this gift shop we went to… we found the CRAZIEST/STRANGEST yard with all sorts of monsters/creatures/body and even helped the owner move a 6-ft tall hand into a guy’s truck… we had dinner in Alabama so I could add another state to my list of visited states (which means I’m currently beating my brother and father)… Hil and I rode a pirate ship… We had sushi with Sharla Megilligan (one of the missionaries we support)… But most of you probably didn’t hear about those things.

The conference was AWESOME!!! We heard some great messages from Perry Noble, Francis Chan, Andy Stanley and many more… There were some funny skit guys… Gungor led worship (sidenote: I think Gungor’s terrible but figured some of you may be impressed that they were there)…

As we headed home from the trip, I was excited to post pics on facebook of our crazy adventures and talk about what we had done.

Now most likely you know the next part of the story… about 13/14ths of the way home, we hit a deer and totaled the church van. That Sunday at church the conversations were generally like this:

Person: Wow what happened to your face?

Me: Yea, airbag got me when we hit a deer on the way home from the Catalyst conference Friday night.

Person: oh no, glad you’re alright. How’s everyone else?

Me: Fine, I took the worst of it.

Person: Well that’s good—how was the conference?

I would then tell them about the powerful message Francis Chan gave or how awesome it was that as  I prayed for us to sing a worship song I actually knew, Michael W. Smith came out on stage and led a few familiar worship songs.

I don’t think we ever really told anyone about our adventures.

It was a terrible experience being woken up by that airbag—seriously something I never want to experience again in my life!

It’s our natural tendency to want to be in control and take care of things ourselves. A car accident definitely makes you feel out of control—especially when you’re not the one driving.

The chapter in Unleash! that stood out to me the most was “More than you can handle.” After getting past the weird Speedo story, it just really struck me.

Again to set the stage before you start reading today’s passage… David still not the king. This chapter is the last one we read before Saul dies and David takes over the kingdom. In the previous chapter, David and his men had been off fighting for Israel. The battles have ended and they are headed home. That’s where we pick up the story.

Read 1 Samuel 30:1-5. While David has been off fighting, another kingdom came and raided their city. All of their wives and children have been taken captive and the city has been set on fire. David and his men are crying, I mean wailing. They are extremely upset and cry until they have no strength left.

Read 1 Samuel 30:6. All the men are upset. But to make matters worse for David, the men are angry at him and want to stone him! This is clearly looking like more than David can handle.

So what does he do? Look at the end of verse 6 again. “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

Really I could stop here. This is exactly what Perry was talking about. God does give us more than we can handle so we focus on Him. When you’ve cried over a situation so much that you have no strength left, He is our strength.

I won’t leave you hanging though and we’ll continue reading. Read 1 Samuel 30:7-10. David inquires of the Lord (that’s what that whole bit about the ephod is referring to) and takes off after the Amalekites. When some of the men get tired, he leaves them and the rest continue on.

Read 1 Samuel 30:11-17. David and his men come across this Egyptian and find out from him what the Amalekites had done and where they were at. The Egyptian leads them to the Amalekites and David, along with his men, annihilate them.

Read 1 Samuel 30:18-20. They got everything back. That’s really surprising to me. All the women and children had survived as POWs for a few days. All of their property was returned to them. There houses are burned down and that stinks, but their families are still alive!

The end of this story is kinda disappointing. We will see that not all of David’s men were very upstanding citizens… Read 1 Samuel 30:21-25. Just because they weren’t able to go the extra mile doesn’t mean the men who stopped halfway shouldn’t get their wives and stiff back. I’m glad David had the wisdom and guts to do the right thing there. And speaking of David doing the right thing and being a good guy, read 1 Samuel 30:26-31. David was even kind enough to share some of the wealth with the elders in Judah and some of his friends.

In the chapter in Unleash!, Perry had three main points: Life is hard. God is still God. You don’t have to give up.

When David and his men came upon their hometown and it was burning to the ground. It was more than they could handle. If they had decide then that God must not love them… If David hadn’t sought strength from the Lord… If the men had stoned David… they would have never seen that God is still God and that He would help them through this situation.

It sucks to go through situations that are more than we can handle. It’s hard when you don’t get things you want. It hurts when friends betray us, when love ones get sick or die, when parent’s lose jobs… But when we are given more than we can handle, God is right there with us! He wants us to trust Him and rely on Him so He can handle things for us.

To quote Perry, “One of the marks of a person who is living an unleashed life is that they can acknowledge the goodness of God even when they are experiencing hell on earth” (97). To live an unleashed life, we need to trust God no matter what. We need to believe that God is God, in our heads and in our hearts. We need to believe that He has a plan and purpose for us.

Have you ever felt like God has given you more than you can handle?

Perry says so many good things that I want to remind you of a few quotes from Unleash!:

“If all along we believe God will never put more on us than we can handle, at this point we’re bound to feel defeated and frustrated. If we can’t handle what we’re facing, then  we assume something must be wrong with us. We must not have enough faith. We must not be living ad godly enough life. But I’m here to tell you that’s simply not true. God often allows the ‘more’ that happens to teach us to depend on his strength” (111).

“One of the most dangerous ideas we can buy into is that as long as we do everything ‘right’—as long as we check off the items on the list of good things God wants us to do—nothing bad will ever happen to us. Scripture clearly teaches otherwise… [Look at Joseph (Gen.39), Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Dan. 3), Job (Job 1:1), Paul and Silas (Acts 16), even Jesus…] Bad things happen to us not because of bad things we’ve done but because we live in a fallen world. Every time we face something we can’t control. It’s a reminder of how desperate we are for God (112-113).

How can you make this practical? What can you do today or this week to apply this?

“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains.” (Hab. 3:17-19) How does this apply to what we’re talking about?

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Rom. 8:28) How does this apply to what we’re talking about?

I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. 9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. 10 And he did deliver us from mortal danger. And we are confident that he will continue to deliver us.” (2 Cor. 1:8-10) How does this apply to what we’re talking about?

In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. (1 Pet 5:10) How does this apply to what we’re talking about?

And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again. (Phil. 1:6) How does this apply to what we’re talking about?

I realize this got long. And I hope you were able to stick with me. Learn this lesson now. Save yourself the heartache that will come later if you think life will be all laughs and giggles because you are a Christian. When God gives you more than you can handle, whether it’s an airbag to the face or something else, remember that He wants you to cling to Him so He can help you through the situation!

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For youth group, I wrote a few of the devotionals we put in a booklet for the teens. The second trip we did was a Missions Trip to New York where we did some Street Evangelism in NYC and some work projects in Upstate NY. Prior to this trip we Read Unleash by Perry Noble and focused on that and the life of David.