Devotion / At the end of your rope?

Just how capable is God?

What are God’s capabilities? We like to say he is all powerful, but when problems hit close to home that often becomes a different story. Then the problems become our problems, and we begin to wonder if God can really help us.

Moses learns a lesson

Moses was in the midst of a 40-year journey through the wilderness with a ragtag group of Israelites who were learning how to be God’s people all over again. Their years of Egyptian bondage had dulled their relationship with the Lord. The trip was burdensome, and their patience with God often ran thin.

This time it was the food. The people were disgusted with their daily diet of manna. They baked it, broiled it, cooked it, boiled it, grilled it, and sautéed it, but the taste was the same. Oh, for those good old days back in Egypt!

Moses had taken all he could, and in his self-pity, he complained to God. His words went something like this: “Lord, I never asked for this job. These are your people, your children, not mine. I didn’t give birth to them, I can’t change their diapers or rock them to sleep, and I surely can’t feed them all. Why are you putting this burden on me? If this is what life is all about, please, just end it now. I’m at the end of my rope!”

God’s lesson

So the Lord gave Moses a simple answer, “We’ll give them some meat tomorrow.”

Moses told God that wasn’t going to happen. There were just too many people. Then the Lord answered Moses with these remarkable words: “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you” (Numbers 11:23).

God’s arms are there for you!

Have there been times in your life when you thought a problem was bigger than the Lord could handle? Have you ever thought his arm might be too short to help? Perhaps it wasn’t a problem of the length of God’s arm but a lack of trust in God’s capabilities.

The Bible tells us to cast all our cares on him, because he cares for us. That holds true for any situation at any time. God’s loving arm will always be there to lift us up. The arms Jesus allowed to be nailed to the cross prove it. That is the reason we can rely on him.

Reynold Kremer