Session 13

I can’t do this

From Ecclesiastes: A 20-Day Devotional

Imagine babysitting a friend’s children and one of them falls off of his bike. He falls into a mud puddle and scratches his knee. You have two other kids with you, so you aren’t able to carry him home like you want to. Instead, he has to walk. It might break your heart hearing him cry the whole way, saying over and over, “I can’t do this!” But while he is saying he can’t do it, he is doing it. When you’re about 30 feet from home, you might turn to him and say, “I know it’s hard and you feel like you can’t do this, but look behind you at how far you’ve come, and look in front of you at how close home is!”

This little guy truly believed he was having the worst day of his life. Everything hurt and no matter how close he was to home, his perspective was blurred by his current predicament. Have you ever felt like a day was the worst of your life? Have you found yourself going through the motions, but saying over and over “I can’t do this”?

God allows us to experience pain for a purpose. 

Ecclesiastes 7:14 says, “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other...” We often can’t see the logic or lesson in our bad days. But when God allows us to experience pain, it’s for a purpose. With each step we take, He walks alongside us, reminding us how far we’ve come and how close we are to home.

Reflect:

Has there been a difficult time in your life that God has walked through with you, and used for a purpose you couldn’t see at the time?
Are you going through anything right now that feels impossible to get through?
What do you need to remember about God’s faithfulness to help you trust that He is with you through this situation, and will use it for a purpose?