In 2004, God called me to lead a very large congregation in Minnesota. They had just completed a brand new 385,000-square-foot facility, including a 4,200-seat auditorium — leaving them with a 28-million-dollar debt. Six weeks after moving onto their new campus they discovered their Senior Pastor of over 15 years had been caught in an extra-marital affair. Adding to the complexity, three days before I was to arrive, all the elders were removed by a vote of the congregation at the annual business meeting. (It’s a long and complicated story — but one the Lord helped us resolve.)

Perhaps you’ve heard the popular adage, “The Lord will never put more on you than you are able to bear.” In those days in Minnesota, I often quipped, “I just wish He did not trust me so much.” But in fact, this adage is simply not true. The Lord DID put on me more than I could bear. The Lord will allow us to be burdened beyond our ability. His purposes in doing so are good — as bad as it may feel at the time.

The Lord will allow us to be burdened beyond our ability. His purposes in doing so are good — as bad as it may feel at the time.

Paul’s Unbearable Burden

The Apostle Paul was candid about his affliction when he wrote, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8). Paul clearly admitted that God had placed a burden on him that he could not bear. Even the great apostle despaired under this burden. The New Living translation reads, “We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.”

In a similar expression, Paul wrote later in the same letter that he had been burdened by a thorn in the flesh — one that the Lord would not remove. Paul, under the weight of this affliction, embraced his weakness and then discovered a new dimension of grace (2 Corinthians 12:9). The Lord instructed him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul concluded, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

As I note often, grace is God doing in us, for us, and through us what only HE can do in the person and power of Jesus Christ. The greater our confession and embrace of weakness, the greater our experience of His grace. Yet, in our culture of achievement and capability, it is counter-intuitive and not an easy lesson to learn.

Grace is God doing in us, for us, and through us what only HE can do in the person and power of Jesus Christ. The greater our confession and embrace of weakness, the greater our experience of His grace.

Stay Weak!

I remember working alongside a young pastor who had suddenly inherited a mega-church assignment and was striving to be competent and make things happen. As gently as I could, I reminded him regularly that his primary focus should be to willingly embrace his inadequacy. I encouraged him very simply, “Stay weak!”

God does not need our strength but our humble surrender. He does not desire our competence but our confession of need. He is not looking for experts but empty vessels He can fill and empower by His grace.

God does not need our strength but our humble surrender. He does not desire our competence but our confession of need. He is not looking for experts but empty vessels He can fill and empower by His grace.

The God of Deliverance

Returning to the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul explains his unbearable burden: “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (1:9-11). Your unbearable burden is designed to turn your focus from the mirror to the empty tomb; from self-reliance to supernatural abundance. Under the excruciating burden, we are graced to abolish all counterfeit sources of hope and to fix our eyes on the sole, sufficient, and supreme Deliverer!

The Means of Deliverance

How does this happen? Paul goes on to instruct our hearts, “You also must help us by prayer” (1:11a). Prayer is the authentic and ultimate confession of need. Paul not only prayed earnestly as he navigated the insufferable burden, but he humbly confessed his need to others, enlisting their prayers on his behalf. He knew that united prayers in the church would invite and accelerate the deliverance of Christ in his life.

Prayer is the authentic and ultimate confession of need.

Is prayer your first resolve or an eventual resort? Are you in a community of believers, whether in a small group or an entire congregation, where you open your hearts to one another and regularly engage in Godward, unpretentious, and united prayer? If not, then you may be tempted to manage your burden by the power of your flesh or via some human strategy of escape or manipulation. As a result, you eclipse the power of grace and fail to grow in the full understanding of your only reliable hope in Christ. This is the recipe for a miserable, stunted, and even embittered Christian life.

Are you in a community of believers, whether in a small group or an entire congregation, where you open your hearts to one another and regularly engage in Godward, unpretentious, and united prayer? If not, then you may be tempted to manage your burden by the power of your flesh or via some human strategy of escape or manipulation.

Our means of dealing with the unbearable burden is prayer. This is just another reason why we should passionately pursue a powerful and pervasive culture of worship-based, transparent, and believing prayer in our churches. United prayer invites profound grace, inspires biblical hope, and promotes Christ-exalting stories of glorious deliverance.

United prayer invites profound grace, inspires biblical hope, and promotes Christ-exalting stories of glorious deliverance.

The Goal of Deliverance

Finally, Paul unveils a wonderful goal of prayer-dispensed deliverance in the face of the unbearable burden. Read carefully: “So that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many (1:11b).” United prayers from God’s humble and dependent people exalt Christ. Corporate prayer shapes the environment for a broad and corporate recognition of the deliverance of God. His glory, via great expressions of united thanksgiving, is the goal of prayer and the divine purpose of God in the lives of overburdened saints.

Overburdened?

Are you feeling the weight of a burden you cannot bear? Meditate on the wisdom of Paul and embrace the biblical ways of divine deliverance, victorious hope, and the glory of God. Stay weak! Cry out to the Lord. Enlist others to pray and stay on your tiptoes in anticipation of a parade of thanksgiving to our gracious God.

Copyright © 2019 Daniel Henderson. All rights reserved.