Too Hard For God?

Karl Crawford • May 29, 2021

“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27


Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Genesis 18:14


“Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Jeremiah 32:17


If I were in front of a room of 32 Christians and asked each one individually, “Is anything too hard for God?” How many do you think would answer that there are at least a few things that are too difficult for Him? My thoughts: None! Not a single “good” Christian would say, “Well, what is going on in my life is something that He just is unable to handle.”


We all would be in agreement, in principle, that there could be nothing too difficult for God: the One who spoke worlds into existence, who keeps those worlds held in place by the Word of His power, who died on the cross for us, who is coming back to take us to be with Himself, the one who knows when a sparrow falls out of the sky, who clothes the lilies of the field, and who knows my thoughts before I think them. With all of that on His resume, how could anything we face be too much for Him?


Now, follow those same people home from that meeting and watch how they (we) live out our daily lives. Do we really believe that there is NO thing too hard for God? Or are those pious words that we say but do not live by?


One of my all-time favorite psalms is Psalm 73. Asaph starts out,


“Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”


He is in effect saying, “God is good! But not to me, not in this instance, not at this time in my life, not in comparison with the ungodly who seem to have everything that they want.”


When we are going through trials, is God enough? When we are being persecuted, is God enough? When a close loved one dies, is God enough? When our church splits, is God enough? When we face a pandemic, is God enough? The 32 Christians in that classroom would answer that He is. But how does our life answer? Is anything too hard for God? If there is not, then why do you fear? Why do you lose sleep?


There is another side to this. The question implies that there are going to be times in our life when God is going to ask us that question, “Am I enough?” Some of us have never come to that place where we need God all that much. We think there is nothing too hard for us to handle. If we ever get to the place where we really need God, then we will turn our problems over to Him, but for now…we have got this. One problem is thinking that God cannot handle the trials that come into our life. The other problem is thinking that we can handle any trial that we face and we don’t need Him.


I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 KJV 


My life, minute by minute, second by second, is to be in harmony with God, trusting His strength rather than my own, living each second by faith in the Son of God.


I used to worry to the point of panic about my wife or my kids being out of my sight and control. I remember years ago when my wife was coming back from Tennessee in a terrible snowstorm. I had to meet with a family that Saturday afternoon in the course of my job and my wife’s journey came up in the conversation. One of the men, whom I had no clue was a Believer, said, “Well, we will be praying for her.” He meant it.


I had been praying for her, but my prayers were panic prayers, or bargaining prayers (I will do this for You God if You bring my wife home safely). His prayer was, “Lord, we know You can bring Ruth safely back to Karl, in spite of any storm.” I liked his prayer a lot better than mine.


So, and here is the moral of the story, if we truly believe that there is absolutely NO thing that is too hard for God, shouldn’t we live that way? All of the time?


Going back to Psalm 73, Asaph questioned the value of being a Christian. He said in verse 13, “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain.” He felt that way until he went into the sanctuary of God, “then understood I their end.”


Asaph finishes the Psalm with,


“Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works." Psalms 73:21-28 KJV


Question #1. Is anything too hard for God?


Question #2. Do we live our daily lives as though that is true?

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