Do you ever have weeks where you’re completely overwhelmed?

Perhaps your stress levels are high. You are short, and irritable, and you feel like you’re on the verge of burning out.

I’ve been there before. As a matter of fact, I was there this week 😬

I was very stressed. I was taking on more than I could handle. I was over capacity and about to explode stress onto everyone around me. My family did not like me stressed. I did not like me stressed. And worse, I didn’t even finish the many things I needed to do. It is not fun being overcapacity.

Finally, after things settled time, I took some time to talk to Jesus about it. And he said something to me that really convicted me.

He said to me:

Phil, it’s okay that you work beyond your capacity.
But it’s not okay that you work beyond the grace that I give you.

That was a very profound revelation. What did He mean?

What he was saying was that he actually expects us to work beyond our capacity. Let me explain. Isn’t that the nature of almost every heroic biblical story? The Bible is full of people who worked beyond what they were innately capable of doing. I think of people like Gideon, who God told to just have 300 with him to fight a large army. He was small, as well as his army. But God’s hand on his life enabled him to work beyond his human capacity.

We are meant to work beyond what we are humanly allowed to do.

BUT! (and that’s a big “but…)

We are not meant to work beyond God’s grace.

When we talk about grace, there are actually multiple definitions of grace. Most of us understand grace as “receiving something we don’t deserve”. And that’s true.

But Paul sees grace also as God’s undeserved power in my life. (Hence, “My grace is sufficient for you…” in 2 Corin 12:9). Grace is the power that God gives us to accomplish great and amazing things. It is grace that was bestowed upon Gideon that enabled him to fight great battles.

What God was saying to me was this: I didn’t seek his grace before I went into the fire. I saw the opportunities to work beyond my capacity, and I ran into with my own strength. And because it was my own strength, it dried up fast. Because it was my own wisdom, I fell in folly. And in the end, I ended up burning out.

Being overstretched is a often symptom that we are running into life’s problems without the grace of God.

But it is God’s grace that enables us to work beyond our capacity without burning out. Because God’s grace extends our ability, enhances our wisdom, stabilizes our hearts, and produces miracles in our lives, we can do things we could never do in our own being. In order to do the great things he has called us to do, we need God’s grace. There is no substitute!

Are you ever overstretched? Are you stressed beyond your ability? If so, let me encourage you with something that God has been teaching me: Seek God’s grace. Seek his power. Abandon your own strength and seek his presence.

Before we do incredible things, we need time to seek God’s grace and strength. Much like David did when he “strengthened himself in the Lord (1 Sam 30:6). We need our prayer life to be greater than the tasks I lifted this week. We need to be clothed with his power.

Have you ever had situations where you didn’t seek God’s grace? Let me know in the comments or reply to this email.

You were made for greatness,
Phil

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