We Cannot Bear It Now

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now" (Jn. 16:12).  Jesus had much more to tell His disciples, but He knew they would be unable to hear it then.  The setting in which Jesus said that was at the last time He would be with them before He would be arrested and crucified.  Even at this time Jesus thought of His disciples.  Jesus knows His disciples well like a "shepherd who knows his sheep."  God is the same with us.

There are times when we wish we knew certain pieces of information or had access to certain things, and we become frustrated and even upset with God for not giving to us what we thought we needed.  The truth is that God always know what we need.  What we think we may need, we may not be able to receive it at that time.  Sometimes there are just things that if we knew at that time we wouldn't be able to handle it then.  Perhaps our hearts were not ready, or maybe we just did not have a strong enough foundation to receive the news.  God knows when and what we need.  Sometimes God may withhold things from us because He knows that if we were to receive when we wanted them, it would actually do more harm than good to us.  This we may not be able to foresee, but God knows.  Just like Adam and Eve, who ate the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat.  Do you think God did not want them to have good fruit?  God gave them plenty of good options, yet they were seduced by the serpent to eat of the tree from which they had been asked not to eat.  By eating of the tree they suffered a consequence that they were not ready for - they felt shame, were embarrassed, and had to live a life of pain and hard labor.  God always gives us what we need at the time we are ready to receive it.

Trust that God knows best, and that He will give to us all that we need, when we need it, and when we are ready for it.    

Father, I know that you will provide me with all that I need.  Please teach me to trust in You and Your plan for my life, for I know that You have a plan for joy for me, and not for woe.  Teach me also to be patient, especially during the times when I feel that I need certain things but am not receiving them.  Give me the grace to bear those times courageously and patiently with the knowledge that You have my back.  You will never leave me destitute.  Teach me to trust in You.

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