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Recently, I was struck with a powerful metaphor as I watched the report on the heavy rains in Florida. For weeks firefighters had fought the raging fires. Thousands of firemen had been sent in from all over the U.S. The latest technology and equipment were brought in to fight the blazes. A big stock car race was cancelled at the Daytona Speedway so it could be used as a staging area for the fire-fighting efforts.

    But day after day, despite the best plans and the heroic effort of the firefighters, the fires raged on. This was a problem that was too big to handle with just human hands. “We need it to rain hard for several days before we’ve got a legitimate shot at getting a handle on these fires,” I heard a firefighter, sweaty and blackened by smoke, say to a reporter.

    Thankfully, in answer to thousands of prayers, a couple of major weather systems came in and did just that. What the firefighters and their high tech equipment could not do alone, weather (God!) helped them do in a grand way. But isn’t that true with nearly every one of us!

“We had great burdens that were beyond our own strength. We even gave up hope of living. Truly, in our own hearts we believed we would die. But this happened so we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises people from the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 (NCV)

    As human beings, we fail at the most important aspect of our physical existence. We can’t keep ourselves alive. Death is too big a problem to handle alone. Without God, death is just an empty long dark abyss that leads to nothingness—and that’s the best case scenario! So God became flesh, lived among us, died and was raised from death so that we could have victory in the most important battle of all, life!

    There are many other problems we may confront that are simply too big to handle alone. So why try? Come to the Father in Heaven. Place your heart, your life, and your struggle in his hands. Share your struggle with other Christian believers. Don’t try to handle your problems by yourself, because some problems are just too BIG to handle ALONE!