Pray, because God gives you more than you can handle

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' ⁴ "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" ⁶ And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

I have been in countless hospital rooms and funeral homes where a well-intentioned Christian will try to cheer up the hurting by saying, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Has anyone ever said that to you?

It sounds great! It sounds wonderful! It sounds like a Bible passage … but it isn’t. In fact, saying that God will not give you more than you can handle is a big, fat LIE.

Just ask a survivor of Auschwitz. Or parents who have to bury their infant child. Or children who learn their parent has terminal cancer. Or a teenager crushed under the weight of depression and anxiety.

We can go to the Scriptures to find plenty of examples of people whom God gave more than they could handle. Joseph couldn’t handle being torn away from his family and sold into slavery as a teenager. Job couldn’t handle losing his children and all his possessions in one day. Samson couldn’t handle losing his hair, then his strength and then his eyesight. David couldn’t handle the knowledge that his infant son was now dead because of his sins of adultery and murder. Elijah couldn’t handle his depression under the broom tree, or Daniel in the lion’s den or the three men in the fiery furnace.

Yet … all these people did it. How? God gave each of them way more than they could handle. But that was the point. They couldn’t handle it … but God can! It is when we finally despair of ourselves that we rely on Christ to deliver us (2 Corinthians 1:8-11).

In other words, when we can’t do it any longer.  When it has become too much.  When we have nothing left.  When we are empty.  When it is beyond our capability to deal with it.  Then, in that moment, we finally realize that we don’t have to go it alone. God has given us more than we can handle. But that’s OK, because He can handle it. Our problems may be too big for us, but they are never too big for God. He fills us up. He gets us through. Nothing is beyond His divine capability.

The widow in Jesus’ parable realized that she could not handle the problem on her own. It was too much for her. Her adversary was getting the better of her. But she quickly realized that there was someone who could help. So she persisted in pleading to the town judge, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” She would not take no for an answer. Even though the crooked judge kept postponing her case, she just kept coming back to court. Finally the judge said to himself, “Even though I could care less about God, justice or this woman, I will judge in her favor because she is wearing me out!”

“Listen to what the unjust judge is saying,” Jesus tells us. Pay attention. This is an example from lesser to greater. God is not some crooked judge on the take. He is righteous and holy and infinitely wise, as well as perfectly just. If this widow could find justice in a judge who could care less about her hopeless problems, then how much more will the Righteous Judge care to help us with our hopeless problems? “Will God not bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”

God did not send His Son to hang dead on a cross to save you so that He could ignore you in your time of need. He did not command you to pray so that He could turn a deaf ear to your prayers. You are His Child, His chosen and elect one. You are baptized, joined to Jesus in Baptism to His death and resurrection. You have the privilege of calling upon God as your Abba, Father (Romans 8:15).

Our problem is that we fail to pray. Or we are impatient in our prayers. We lose heart and cease taking it to the Lord in prayer. Impatience kills our prayers. We want our burger and fries in under a minute and our pizza delivered in less than 30 minutes. We hate standing in long lines or being stuck in traffic or being told to take a number and wait our turn. We’re insulted when we have to wait. We want it now. Instant gratification – from a restaurant, from a store … even from God.

We lose patience with prayer. We don’t get what we want, when we want it, and so we quit. Our prayers are shallow, sporadic, undisciplined, anemic. It’s like going to the gym a couple of times, lifting a few weights and then concluding, “This exercise stuff doesn’t work. I don’t see a hint of muscle.”

Or we look at God as some kind of celestial vending machine. Put in our dimes and quarters of praise and prayers and out pops the blessing on demand.

Or when we pray we keep score in the back of our minds, to see what the percentage is. Kind of like a batting average. The higher percentage of answers we receive, the better off and happier we are with our God. But the Bible never describes God as a vending machine dispensing blessings at our every whim. Nor is prayer like a batting average, where we keep track of God’s slugging percentage.

Prayer is an exercise in patience. You are praying to the God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day (Psalm 90:4). This could take a while.

One of the characteristics of the Christian faith is patient endurance (u`pomonh,), persistence in the face of difficulty. The widow in the parable keeps coming back to the crooked judge with her persistent petitions because she has no place else to go. Even if the judge is unsympathetic to her cause, she keeps coming back to him day and night because there is no one else who can grant her justice.

Proper prayer is exercised over the long haul, not the short term. It’s a marathon, not a 100 meter dash. God never promises to give you what you ask for. Rather He promises that your prayers will be answered by giving you His Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament. Your prayers are answered as He provides you with a peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7). Your prayers are answered as He does justice for you – His justifying and forgiving you in Christ.

Sometimes we may teach that God answers your prayers with a “yes” or a “no” or a “wait.” But in reality, all true prayers that come from a heart of faith and that are prayed in accordance with God’s heavenly will are already answered “yes” in Jesus. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:13). God will bring about justice to your crying out day and night, and He will do it quickly. “Call upon me in the day of trouble,” He says, “and I will deliver you” (Psalm 50:15).

That doesn’t mean that you will get bailed out of every scrape by some divine hand reaching down from heaven and plucking you out of danger. But you will be delivered, ultimately and finally and completely, in your deliverance from death in your resurrection. Your deepest prayers are not for life or health or well-being. Your prayers are about forgiveness and new life and salvation. All those prayers have already been answered in Jesus. The answer to all your prayers are already “yes” through Jesus.

Our life of prayer is like Jacob wrestling with God in the wilderness. Jacob pins God down and won’t let him go, even with his hip out of joint, until he receives a blessing. That’s the stubborn persistence of faith. The new name Jacob receives is Israel – one who wrestles with God. That’s what we are as baptized believers – we are God’s Israel – those who wrestle with God in prayer. It is OK for us to be weak, for then we find refuge and strength in God. It is good for us to empty ourselves in prayer, then we can fill ourselves up as read through the Psalms and use them as our prayers. It is amazing how often the inspired prayers of the psalmists from several millennia ago are still so fitting for our specific circumstances. It is helpful for us to admit that we are nothing but helpless widows who must beg for help.

Jesus prayed. He was overwhelmed with sorrow for He was already beginning to feel the horrors of hell weigh down on Him. And so he prayed. He prayed boldly in the Garden desiring for the cup of God’s wrath be taken away from Him. Yet He also prayed humbly requesting, “Not my will, but yours be done.” He prayed for His disciples of all ages that they be one as the Triune God is one. He prayed for those who mocked Him, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” He prayed to the Father when the Father seemed absent from His suffering, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” He prayed in His dying breath in the darkness to the silent Father, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”

Jesus is the High Priest who takes our prayers to the throne of His heavenly Father. It is His blood that washes us clean from our impatient prayers. It is His sacrifice that perfects our imperfect prayers. It is His cross that brings God’s justice upon His chosen ones.

Jesus prayed. Jesus invites us to pray. Jesus intercedes for us and takes our prayers to His heavenly Father. It is no vain, empty, religious exercise to pray. Prayer is the voice of faith exhaling. We inhale the breath of God in His Spirit-breathed Word. We are given life through the breath of God. Then we exhale as we breathe out prayer and praise.

Prayer is part of our conversation with Dad, Abba, our heavenly Father in our worship. The Fathers speaks to His children in His absolution, Scripture lessons and sermon. His children speak to their Father in our confession, prayers and praise.

Prayer is the intimate conversation between the Bride and Bridegroom. It is the family dialogue of God’s household in which our deepest longings and hopes, our desires for forgiveness, life and peace are laid before our Father in heaven and are heard and answered.

“God won’t give you more than you can handle.” It sounds biblical, but it isn’t. This is biblical: “God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God always provides an escape from your temptations through Christ. This is biblical: “In all things, God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). God takes the problems you can’t handle and still works them out for your eternal benefit. This is biblical: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” God allows you to endure problems that you cannot possibly begin to handle on your own so that you might come to Him in prayer. He wants you to wear out your knees in prayer. Fold your hands in humility. Open your mouth in boldness.

Pray, because God gives you more than you can handle. But He can … and will … and has already handled it all in Christ. Amen.