![]() The kind of stretch I feel when my daughter dares me to do the splits. And as Christians, I think we must mean something akin to God’s sovereignty when we use this phrase.īut boiling down God’s mysterious sovereignty to the word “reason” is a stretch. Unless you’re someone who believes that there is no meaning or purpose to life, then you believe things happen for a reason. How about, “Quit grasping for control and surrender to God.” As Christians, we’re called to recognize that apart from Him we can do nothing, to turn away from our sin, and to look to God for life. I’m sure just like that dang Frozen song – the one that gives parents cheese-grater-on-the-chalkboard chills – this phrase started with good intentions, namely that we surrender to God.īut maybe we should say what we mean. It could be anything! Leggo my Eggo? Let go of our Bibles and let God enable us to rebuild our theology around, oh I don’t know, Frozen? I think this phrase has something to do with surrender and trust, or the movie Frozen.īut the phrase is a little mushy. The cultural phrase doesn’t bring comfort. That verse in Corinthians is very different from the cultural saying “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” It states that with God’s help, He will never allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. The phrase actually comes from a verse dealing with temptation in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Namely, the kind of advice that comforts the bearer, not the recipient. To top it off, his friends doled out the kind of “comfort” that Christians try to express with this phrase. I’d say losing your kids, your wealth, your health and being tormented by Satan is more than most can handle. But it begs the question: How much pain can we handle? It may even calm me when I think I might miss my morning coffee and try to face the day decaffeinated. Suddenly he said some remarkable things using an extensive depth of vocabulary. God won’t give you more than you can handle.” While he moaned, I pointed out, “Tom, you don’t need to worry. The klutz broke his ankle last time we ran. I used this phrase once with my jogging partner Tom. “God will never give you more than you can handle.” So my humble correction to this phrase is: “God helps those who can’t help themselves and recognize their desperate need for Him.” 2. We get on our knees and then do the good He’s put in front of us to do. ![]() ![]() Of course this doesn’t mean we sit on our butts doing nothing and munching Oreos. Do you know why? It’s impossible to do anything good apart from Him. If someone is struggling with sin, then this phrase has all the relevancy of “just stop it.” We know that never works.īut God has a tender spot for those who can’t help themselves. The problem is when it comes to God, we’re actually kind of powerless. This phrase is part of a family of power sayings like “Get ‘er done,” “Just Do It” and “If it’s gonna get done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” Never say all three of these at the same time. But my job is to ever so humbly root through them for biblical truthiness and offer correctives. My assignment is a bit tricky, because as with all good lies, there’s a hint of truth in each of these. Recently, 4 of these phrases came to my attention. It’s as if their purpose is to upset all of our senses. And we know that wherever they are right now, they’ll end up in our bathrooms bordered by floral patterns or, worse, crocheted. They cover our refrigerators, bumpers and Facebook walls. ![]() Those seemingly harmless, inspirational sayings that have seeped into our Christian verbiage like oil into carpet. ![]()
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