She was one of my brightest students.

She was a hard worker, and her report card evidenced it.

But when she met long division…well, she had met her match.

I explained and re-explained. I tried to break it down into simple steps – okay, let’s just look at this step by step.  See, our next step is to subtract. What is 5 minus 4?

I don’t know.

She was stuck. Long division was just too hard. And since she wasn’t going to get it, there was a mental block firmly in place that wouldn’t even allow her to do what she had already had known how to do since 1st grade.

Long division is the math unit that comes up every year with great fear and trembling. For many of my students, it is just straight up hard. They wonder if they will ever get it – and I don’t let on, but I secretly wonder, too! Hey, maybe it’s okay if they don’t get it…they can always use the phone on their calculator, after all! Or maybe I’ll just let the 5th grade teacher deal with it!

But year after year, I teach it. I know that my students need it.  And when my students start to get it after much blood, sweat, and tears (and that’s just on my end!), it’s so rewarding.  What initially felt impossible to them is now something that they are capable of doing.

I understand…after all, we have all been in those places where God has given us something that simply just seems too hard to handle in life. And sometimes we know to take the next step of obedience – but just as my student was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t process a simple subtraction problem, sometimes I get overwhelmed and feel like giving up. And as I was reading through Hebrews 11 the other night, God reminded me of how it is possible to be faithful and to persevere in those times.  These “Heroes of the Faith” listed in Hebrews 11 were remarkably ordinary people, like you and me. They would have had fears and feelings of their own in the situations that God had called them to.  Now, the Bible doesn’t always mention what they thought, so I can’t say what exactly went through their minds – so I want to proceed with some caution. The thoughts below are certainly not inspired!  But I have found that it is good for me to put myself in their shoes and think about how I would have felt if God had called me to do the same things.

Think of Abraham- willing to give up the most precious thing in his life, his only son that he had desperately yearned for all of his life, the son that had only come because of a miracle of God…and now God was asking him to kill that son.  Can you only imagine the thoughts & fears that must have run through his mind?

But Lord, he is my everything. I can’t give him up. What will my wife say? What will others think? How could you ask me to do this? This is too hard. This is too much.

Think of Moses leading God’s people against the powerful nation of Egypt.

How will Pharaoh take me seriously with this speech impediment? What if these people don’t listen to me? What if Pharaoh decides to kill me? What will happen to my family? What if I fail? This is too hard. This is too much.

Think of the nation of Israel as they came to the Red Sea and how trapped they must have felt with the sea in front of them and the angry Egyptian army behind them.

What if we are taken back to Egypt as slaves? What if we are killed out here? What if my choice is going to end up harming my family? This is too hard. This is too much.

How were they able to faithfully obey & serve God when He brought them up against such difficulties? Because they knew and trusted God despite what their fears and feelings may have said.

The secret to faithfulness is knowing my God and believing His promises.  When I come up against something that is too hard and too much, I  have a God that is more than enough to help me through it.  When I am weary and don’t feel like going on, it is easy to take my eyes off of God and allow my circumstances to become bigger than He is. But there is no circumstance that is bigger than my God.

Have you not known?Have you not heard?The everlasting God, the Lord,The Creator of the ends of the earth,Neither faints nor is weary.His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

My lack of faith stems from focusing on the temporal problems instead of my eternal, all mighty God and His promises.

Just as all of those men & women of Hebrews 11 couldn’t be faithful on their own, there is no way that I can be faithful on my own. But I don’t have to depend on myself -my strength, my wisdom, my patience. I just need to turn to God’s promises and choose to trust them regardless of how I feel.

You see, I have many feelings, and they are very real feelings…but that is all they are – feelings. I need to remind myself of the facts from God’s Word.

• I feel weary, but my God has promised to strengthen me (Is. 40:31)…so I can be faithful.
• I feel that I have no wisdom to deal with my circumstances, but my God has an abundant supply that He has promised me (James 1:5)…so I can be faithful.
• I feel that my circumstances are overwhelming, but my God has promised that He is sovereignly working every single detail out for my good and His glory (Rom. 8:28-29)…so I can be faithful.
• I feel that I can’t love others as I ought to, but my God is the source of love and will help me (I John 4:7)…so I can be faithful.

Faith isn’t a feeling . It’s a choice. It’s a choice to trust and step out in obedience, even when I don’t feel it or it doesn’t make sense.

I don’t know what circumstances that God is bringing you through – difficulties at work,  a struggling marriage, loneliness, a child who has wandered away from God, or a diagnosis from the doctor.  I don’t know what it is that you are telling God right now is too hard and too much. But I DO know that because of God’s faithfulness and through His grace, we can be faithful in those circumstances.  God’s promises didn’t let down those “Heroes of the Faith” of Hebrews 11, and His promises aren’t going to let us down.

When you feel things are too hard and too much, you are in great company – you are in the company of thousands of men and women who have gone before you and finished their race here on earth. And they are now in Heaven, where their faith has become sight. If they could talk to us, I can only imagine the encouragement they would give us – Don’t give up. It is worth so much more than you could ever imagine. God was faithful to me, and He will be to you, too! Keep your eyes on Him!

Our circumstances may feel that they are too hard and too much, but our God is more powerful and more than enough to help us face those circumstances.  His faithfulness is the secret to my faithfulness and endurance.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)