Have You Reached Capacity?
Sam, have you reached your capacity? This was the random question that dropped into my spirit this week while heading into work. I had a flashback of different seasons in my life where I felt like God was testing me beyond what I could handle.
I remembered when I first started my doctoral program—new job, newly married, all at once. I left orientation with a blank look on my face. Before I could even finish the thought, “How am I going to balance all of this?” God whispered so clearly and loudly in that moment:
“I didn’t ask you to balance. I told you to trust Me.”
At the time, it brought me temporary comfort, but the journey ahead proved that I hadn’t truly taken God—or His word—at heart. I was still determined to do it on my own, relying on my own strength and figuring it out myself. I don’t know why God could deposit so much faith in me, and yet I still struggled to surrender every area of my life.
But that’s just one example.
God continues to take me on journeys that reveal my true capacity.
Have you ever walked into an elevator or stood in line for a ride at an amusement park and seen the weight capacity limit? You know exactly how much the device can hold. But when it comes to us, we don’t come with certificates. We don’t always know how much we’re built to carry—even if we feel like we’ve reached our limit.
I’ve been stretched far beyond what I thought I could handle in so many seasons of my life. And if I still had the same mindset I had in my 20s, I’d be sitting on the sidelines of the life God called me to live—just dreaming about it, but never walking in it.
Faith is the key.
Actually, let me correct that: faith in who God is—His character, His love, His consistency—is what gives us the capacity to carry what we didn’t think we could.
Right now, I think of faith like a good pair of elastic stretch pants.
They can stretch way beyond what you imagined, right up to the edge—just before the seams burst. That’s how God grows us. Right before we give up or walk away from what God placed in us to do, He stretches us to reach the capacity He always intended.
The Bible is full of people who misjudged their capacity—and God used them anyway. Not because of their strength, but because they were willing to be used.
If you asked my 20-year-old self if I could ever walk in the peace and ease I have now, I wouldn’t have believed you. I gave up on my dreams a long time ago when I believed the lie that I didn’t have what it takes. But it was my faith in God—and taking a chance on His will—that rescued me from the mistake I was determined to make.
I had made up my mind…
And yet God stepped in.
Now, I have the privilege of walking in the capacity He always knew I had.
Difficult seasons aren’t evidence that you’re not built for this.
They’re evidence that God is stretching your capacity for purpose.
When something in you won’t quit, when you keep getting back up—pay attention. That’s often where your purpose lives.
I’m grateful for every challenge that’s shown me who I am in God. And I’m even more grateful that I’ve never overcome a single thing in my own strength.
It was nobody but God. Every single time.
In purpose,
Simply Faith
If you're struggling to build capacity in your faith, you don't have to do it alone.
God never intended for you to grow your faith in isolation. He placed a mandate on us to build it—and the best place to do that is in community.
That’s why I created Simply Faith—a space for women who are tired of falling short, getting knocked down, and delayed by doubt and unbelief.
Each week, you’ll receive a God-inspired word to empower your faith and equip you to walk confidently in the life God designed just for you.
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You were never meant to do this alone