When It's All Too Much

Have you experienced being overwhelmed, when everything seems too hard and you've had enough?  When we feel this way our tendency is to feel lonely, disillusioned and like we ought to quit.  If you have felt this way as a Christian, you are not alone.  Elijah was a man who feared God, who was protected and miraculously provided for, whose prayers were answered, and saw God work wonders firsthand.  Yet after he received a death threat from queen Jezebel, he left his servant behind ventured alone into the wilderness.  He prayed to God he would die and said, "It is enough!  Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"  It was all too much for Elijah.

1 Kings 19:5-8 reads, "Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." ⁶ Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." ⁸ So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God."  Elijah was awakened by an angel who touched him and directed him to eat.  Bread had been cooked for him and a jug of water provided.  After Elijah obeyed, the angel returned a second time and bid him eat and drink more because the journey was too much for him.

For all who have felt overwhelmed and the troubles of life are just too much, this is an instructive passage.  The LORD was sending Elijah on a journey that was too much for him.  Think about that!  I have heard some say God will not give us more than we can handle, but that was not true in Elijah's case.  I believe everything God asks His children to do is too much for us.  By ourselves we are not sufficient; we are not able.  God routinely guides and directs us to do what is too much for us so we might learn to rely upon His strength and wisdom to endure and give Him the glory for accomplishing His will through us.  Who among us can love one another as Jesus loves?  Who can go 40 days and 40 nights without food or water on a long journey without God's sustaining presence?  As Elijah was provided bread and water, Christians have been given the Bread of Life Jesus Christ and the Living Water of the Holy Spirit to sustain us continually.

To people naturally weak, fearful and easily discouraged, Psalm 37:3 says:  "Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."  While Elijah became depressed comparing himself with his fathers, wished to die and fell asleep, God sent an angel to wake and feed him because of the journey God planned for Elijah to take.  It was too much for Elijah, but it was nothing for God to bring Elijah to God's intended destination.  God has granted Christians a better blessing than angels, fresh bread and water, for He has come in the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells and helps us continually.  Galatians 6:9-10 is a fitting exhortation for believers who feel overwhelmed, "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith."  It's all too much for us, and God would have it no other way because He is enough.