God Always Provides in the Gap (#GAPintheGAP)
As I was growing up, I remember hearing different people in the church say, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” I remember thinking that was so comforting and such a nice assurance. Then I got older and realized that never in God’s word does He make that promise to us. In fact, from what I’ve seen, God often gives us what we can’t handle on our own. He just never gives us anything more than He can handle. The tricky part becomes us realizing what things we can do, how hard to push, what work to dive into head first, and all-the-while being willing to invite Him into those spaces, to surrender what we can’t handle, and to be totally dependent on God. There is a quote by Mark Batterson that I love. He says, “Work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on God.” Use your gifts to pursue all the things God calls you to. Love fiercely. Fight for what you believe it. Do all you can do. Meanwhile, pray for God to provide in the gap between what you can do and what He can do. He is the one to multiply our efforts and take control. We simply have to be willing to surrender whatever it is we’re trying to handle on our own.
I am a worrier by nature. I come from a long line of worriers. Sometimes, I worry that I worry too much or worry that I’ll be worried in different scenarios. You get the idea. (#worrier) However, when I became a parent, it really started to be important to me to not let that tendency to worry drive how I parent, how I am as a spouse, how I am in my work, how I am in life. I’ve had seasons that were more successful in staying out of the thought hole of anxiety and worry and seasons that I seem to dive head first into it and flail around for a bit before being pulled back to the surface. The consistent thread is this. God Always Provides in the gap between what I’m able to do or handle on my own and what I need to be able to do or handle in any given situation. GAP in the gap. God doesn’t always provide what I, or any of us, ask. He doesn’t always remove difficult situations, difficult people, or difficult outcomes. He doesn’t always provide the resource or answer we ask Him for. But what He has already provided and continues to provide is Himself to us through it. All we’re asked to do is surrender it to Him and ask Him to walk with us through. In addition to Himself, He often provides other people — counselors, friends, family, physicians, strangers even — to come alongside us and help us through to the other side. I believe God gave us medical and mental health professionals to address many of our needs and that those resources are something to be incredibly thankful for.
This week, I was again reminded of this message that God gave to me a few years ago and it gave me so much peace. He even gave me joy. Even when life is throwing all the punches, it really is possible to experience these gifts. Phil Wickham’s song “House of the Lord” is such a great expression of that joy. Give that a listen if you haven’t already. Thank you, Lord, for the small and large ways that you continue to provide. I don’t ever want to miss it. Side note, but that leads me to another amazing song… “I don’t want to miss it” by Ellie Holcomb. Listen to it. Shout it out. His provisions are all around it. Don’t miss them. Be intentionally watching for them. We can never know what the outcomes will be in life or what is ahead, and it’s possible that our worst fears may become a reality. However, we can hold onto the fact that God Always Provides in the gap, no matter how big of a gap it may be. He never meant for us to try to carry the world around on our backs. He’s kind of taken care of that as we’re living on a large ball of earth rapidly rotating through space. Throw off the weight you’re carrying and let Him do His thing. I’ll leave you with some of my favorite promises and reminders.
· I Peter 5:7 — “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
· Matthew 11:28 — “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
· Ephesians 3:20–21 — “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
· 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 — “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
· Matthew 6:25–34 — “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
