Have you ever said, ‘What if I cannot handle it anymore?’ Some of us don’t need to be reminded how stressed we are but the statistics say stress is a factor in five out of six leading causes of death. These are heart disease, cancer, stroke, lower respiratory disease and accidents. We live in a very stressful world. Pastor Adrian Rogers said stress is the gap between the demands placed upon us and the strength we have to meet those demands. I would like to share with you a few practical principles regarding stress.

God Will Not Give You More Than What He Can Handle

Notice, I did not say ‘what you could handle.’ The misconception that God will not give you more than you can handle is actually not in the Bible. Some of us are fighting the things that God is empowering us to flee but the Bible does not say that God will not let you have trouble you cannot handle, He says He won’t let you have temptation that you will not be able to handle, (1 Corinthians 10:13). God will not give you the strength to fight temptation but to run from it.

Have you felt like life, challenges, breaking generational curses, setting a new standard, raising a family, furthering your career or fulfilling your calling has become harder than you thought it would be? Sometimes you get to a place where things are not bad, they are dead and you feel you cannot take it anymore. ‘I can’t live another day, I can’t put up with this anymore’. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Apostle Paul says he was burdened beyond his ability to bear but all of this taught him not that God will not let him have more than I can handle but if he relied on God, He would see him through.

When God Does Not Remove Struggle, He Renews Our Strength, (Isaiah 40:29-31)

This verse does not say those who wait on the Lord will have their struggles removed or problems eliminated. God’s solution is not to reduce the problem but increase our strength. If God removed every struggle, you would never be successful. Every success requires stress. Every blessing carries a burden. I want you to shift your prayer. Instead of saying, ‘God, take this struggle away,’ say, ‘Lord, increase my strength’. God wants us to get stronger so we can conquer and outlast it.

God doesn’t ask you to use your strength, He asks you to discover His in Philippians 4:13. We don’t fail because problems are big; we fail because our strength is not enough, (Proverbs 24:10).

God’s Strategy Is In God’s Strength

The challenge of stressful times is they seem not to end; you feel like your future is gone and you don’t know if you will ever get out of it. In these moments, people tend to look for a way out and make poor decisions. Stressful times cloud your judgment and it becomes hard to think clearly.

1 Samuel 20:6 says when David was stressed, he didn’t ask God for direction, he got devoted to his God and went to his God for strength. If you lost your house, job, marriage, maybe even your identity or you feel like you’re losing your mind, I want you to run to God. Take God as your strength. When you strengthen yourself in God, He will give you a strategy.

Three things happen when you make God your strength:

1. If the storm doesn’t stop, you will rise above it.
2. You will surge like an athlete and not get tired. You can be in the centre of God’s will yet accidents can still happen. These things will not define you but refine you.
3. You will stick like a soldier each day.

A lot of people get complacent when life gets predictable. The only time they are burning for God is if something is burning in their lives. You will not be moved by your feelings but your devotion and faith when you make God your strength.

Prayer

For those of you going through stress, and you need God to infuse you with strength, place your hand on your heart. Make your request known to God and the Lord will cause His peace to overwhelm you right now, in Jesus’ name.

Sermon by Vladimir Savchuk; blog by Edward Gardiner