I Got It Handled

“I got it handled,” was a common saying at my husband’s work before he retired. So common, that anyone venturing into the office on any given day would more than likely hear it said before they left the building. My ears picked up on it right away the days I worked part time. Someone had a problem; someone else had the solution. It was as simple as that.

So, I couldn’t help but laugh when the Lord used that same line on me. I had just poured out my heart to Him, presenting my most recent, (and might I add painful) confessions of failing to live up to God’s rightful demands for holiness. Much of my prayer time back then was spent confessing the exhaustless depths of ick in my heart. Seldom did I walk away without still feeling condemned. It was the proverbial Romans 7 nightmare on steroids. O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death (vs 24)?

That’s when God said it, bad grammar and all. “I got it handled.”

Such welcomed words to my exhausted soul! It was time to leave my failing, flailing flesh behind and get to the crux of the matter—There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . . . (Romans 8:1).

God’s “got it handled” from below—Sin in the flesh was condemned when Jesus became flesh and was the atoning sacrifice for our sins (John 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:2). “Christ willingly offered up His perfect life as the perfect sacrifice, to pay the perfect price that God required for the accumulated fullness of imperfect humanity’s sin, and in so doing, Christ condemned sin in the flesh” (dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com/romans-8-3). Thus, the righteous and just requirements of the Law might be fulfilled in us (not by us) who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:4).

God’s “got it handled” from within—His Holy Spirit resides in us who believe. He confirms our identity in Christ, comforts, guides, teaches, convicts, empowers, and advances us forward in our walk with Christ. His yearning and groaning from deep within gives voice to our silent sufferings, and turns our weak prayers into harmonious echoes of God’s heart (Romans 8:15–27). Now that’s intimacy!

God’s also “got it handled” from above—He’s not fretting whether or not His children will succeed, because He decreed from the beginning His intention to raise us to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being (Romans 8:30). His decree went into action through His Son’s mediation on earth and continues through His intercession from above. God is partnering with us in our labor, ensuring that everything works together and is fitting into His plan for our good (vs 28–39).

Needless to say, I was greatly comforted to know God is confidently handling my affairs.

Then today—almost two decades later—He said it again. “I got it handled.” He figured I needed another brush up on His management abilities. He was right, of course! Fretting had wormed its way into my intercession. My ‘neat and orderly’ tendencies had slipped into overdrive as I struggled to prayerfully remedy our nation’s excessive, perplexing, unmanageable, ever-changing crises of sin and hurt, tension and flimflam associated with this extraordinary age we live in.

God’s “got it handled” around me—I am God and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure (Isaiah 46:9–10). His remarkable plan is in the birth canal. Nothing will stop the process until its completion when Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. Fist shaking at heaven will have ceased, the commotion died down, and the last enemy, death, has been abolished. When everything has been subjected to Him, and all His enemies placed under His feet, the Son Himself will also subject Himself to [the Father] Who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all [be everything to everyone, supreme, the indwelling and controlling factor of life] (1 Corinthians 15:24–28).

So, why was I sweating it so much in the struggle? Because He is partnering with us from below, from within, from above, and all around us on this journey called life, we can hang in there and keep on keeping on. God’s got it handled!