{"id":48775,"date":"2022-06-21T20:22:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T01:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=48775"},"modified":"2025-11-07T14:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:49:13","slug":"beyond-our-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/beyond-our-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Our Strength (Moyer)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a principle Paul expresses in II Corinthians 1:8-11 that we need to learn well. We may feel overwhelmed by what is going on. We may feel in despair about many things. We may see that things are happening that are &#8220;<em>beyond our strength<\/em>.&#8221; What, then, is the lesson to learn? Here is what Paul learned when he felt the pressing &#8220;<em>sentence of death<\/em>&#8220;: &#8220;<em>so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So that we would not trust in ourselves but in God&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That principle should be applied to whatever we feel is overwhelming. Is it culture? Is it politics? Is it personal threats? Is it financial? What is it? What is stressing us out so much? What are we feeling that is beyond our strength? We feel the desperation &#8220;<em>so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Paul&#8217;s was very personal. He was persecuted and under constant threat (see II Corinthians 11). But the lesson is the same. If we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart, if we are not to lean on our own understanding, if we are to acknowledge God in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6), then, however, whatever, and wherever we are feeling the pressing sting of life, we are to trust God. There is no arena of life in which we are exempt from trusting Him.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Yeah, but aren&#8217;t we supposed to do our part?&#8221; No one is saying we shouldn&#8217;t do what we are taught to do.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Yeah, but we still have to care about things.&#8221; Of course, we care but if we stew in worry, we cross over into what God told us not to do (Philippians 4:6-7; Matthew 6:25-34).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No &#8220;yeah, buts&#8230;&#8221; are justified because none of the &#8220;buts&#8221; change what we are called on to do in trusting God. The overwhelming nature of this world can get to us. If we learn the lesson from Paul, we can see that things do indeed lie beyond our strength so that we will learn to trust in God who raises the dead.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Doy Moyer There&#8217;s a principle Paul expresses in II Corinthians 1:8-11 that we need to learn well. We may feel overwhelmed by what is going on. We may feel in despair about many things. We may see that things are happening that are &#8220;beyond our strength.&#8221; What, then, is the lesson to learn? Here&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[397,49,129,906],"class_list":["post-48775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-depression","tag-faith","tag-trust","tag-worry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50330,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-god-give-us-more-than-we-can-handle\/","url_meta":{"origin":48775,"position":0},"title":"Would God give us more than we can handle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have heard the saying, \"God does not give us more than we can handle\" being used quite a lot. Is this biblically correct? I am a Christian and I feel like I am being crushed. I am a teenager, but I cannot enjoy my youth. I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/living-with-unanswered-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":48775,"position":1},"title":"Living with Unanswered Questions","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Most of us would likely agree with the idea that the older we get, the more we realize we don't know. The vastness of the universe, the complexity of people, and the general recognition that we just don't have all the answers lead us to realize the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55600,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/comfort-for-the-depressed\/","url_meta":{"origin":48775,"position":2},"title":"Comfort for the Depressed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Johnny Felker In II Corinthians 1, Paul discusses what must have been one of the lowest points in his life, a time filled with deep feelings of anxiety and despair. He reports that in Asia he was \"burdened excessively, beyond... strength\" so that he \"despaired even of life\", having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/depressed.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":62066,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/grace-is-sufficient\/","url_meta":{"origin":48775,"position":3},"title":"Grace Is Sufficient","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Paul describes certain visions and revelations that were beyond his understanding (II Corinthians 12). He then spoke of what he calls a \"thorn in the flesh,\" given to him to keep him from becoming conceited. He implored the Lord three times that this thorn would be removed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80974,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/trusting-people-who-lost-your-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":48775,"position":4},"title":"Trusting People Who Lost Your Trust","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Love covers a multitude of sins, but does love require you to let yourself get burned over and over? Love is goodwill, wanting good things for the other person, but love does not mean we have to be vulnerable to people who prove themselves to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/accepting-gods-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":48775,"position":5},"title":"Accepting God&#8217;s Work","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer God doesn't need our defense (as though He needed anything (Acts 17:25)). When we accept God in total - that, for example, He is all-knowing, all-wise, all-understanding, all-powerful, all-loving, all-just, all-gracious, all-righteous, all-good, owner of life and death, etc. - then we won't feel like He owes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}