The Most Annoying Heretical Christianese Phrase

I just don't know how much more I can take!
I know, I know.
I mean it! If one more thing happens, I'm going to crack.
Oh, honey. Just remember: God doesn't give us more than we can handle.

Bzzzzzzz
I'm sorry. Wrong answer. 

Aw snap.

I'm not sure who came up with this trendy phrase, but I know we need to end it.* Somehow (it seems) 1 Corinthians 10:13 became a blanket statement for trials and tribulations. However, this verse is cut and dried; It's talking about good ol' fashion temptation. There's nothing in that verse to suggest God will put a cap on my struggles. In fact, just the opposite is biblically true.** The Bible is rife with accounts of God stretching people to the max. And then some. History is jam-packed full of Christians who, by all intent and purposes, should have caved. But they didn't. 

Here's the zinger: Most of us can name on one hand, the people we personally know who have lived extraordinary lives of faith; Whose lives cannot be explained outside of God, and even then, leave us shaking our heads in awe. 

Dear friends, this should not be. I refuse to believe that modern-day Christians are somehow exempt from the radical, sold-out, cannot-be-shaken lives that were common to generations past. Radically living for Christ is not legend; it's authenticity. A surrendered life cannot be cashed in on a wooden nickel. Only gold, refined in the fire will do. 

It is when I am gripping the last frayed strands at the end of my rope, that God's glory shines the brightest. It is where I am crushed to the point of exhaustion and cannot draw a full breath that my life is best suited for Kingdom work. Once outside the realm of my abilities, my skills and my accomplishments God's work is most visible. When I am at my thickest in my comfort, His light is at its dimmest in my life. 

I desire a life that leaves people bending their hearts to the Father. If my life is aligned with the "American Dream", I have forfeited a cross-bearing life at the cost of souls. If my life is aligned with YAHWEH, there is no damper large enough to snuff out my light. Each person I encounter will leave our conversation saying there is no way humanly possible for her to do what she does.

Exactly.

That's where I want to be. I want to say each morning that there is no logical way for me to take even one baby step without falling flat on my face. I am powerless to propel myself to do what I do. Only an all-powerful God could orchestrate my life. I have ended and His glory is what goes before me and behind me. I have become but a mere speck in my own life, barely visible apart from the mighty hand of my God.

Church, we need not stand by wistfully daydreaming of a time when we were powerful. It is yet our time to renew our strength in Christ alone.

Time To Rise,
Cynthia


*I'm sure they had good intentions. 
**That whole "In this world you will have troubles" bit is probably just as true as the rest of the Bible.