Does God Give Us More Than We Can Handle?
We have probably all heard the saying that is meant to comfort, “God will never give you more than you can handle,” So is it true? Does God give us more than we can handle?
My heart goes out to all of those that have suffered and the well-meaning people that have said that to them. I mean what would life be if we were never challenged. Never allowed to fail. Never stretched to be more than what we are at this moment.
So we go to the bible. The problem with it is it’s not in the Bible. Nope, sorry people it is found nowhere in the Bible.
God uses a trial to stretch us. To mold us, to burn off the bad parts. To better us. With God, we can do all things.
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There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV
This is the verse that they believe that the term God will not give you more than you can handle. But it doesn’t say that, does it?
Let’s look at another modern translation.
No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy]. 1 Corinthians 10:13 AMP
Clearly this is talking about our being tempted not going through hard times.
Let’s look at the early church. The disciples went through trials and suffered greatly.
For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about a]our trouble in [the west coast province of] Asia [Minor], how we were utterly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life [itself]. 9 Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the sentence of death [and were convinced that we would die, but this happened] so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 AMP
In the last few years, God has given me more than I can handle. Not just once but over and over again. I’m worn out. I’m tired of this fight. Yet I can not quit because it is a fight that draws my heart closer to him. If peace and rest mean surrender then I choose to be tired but still fighting. Still learning. Still being stretched, refined, challenged, being made more.
If there are not burdens that are too big for us to handle then we have no need for God. He tells us in his Word that we were never made to carry these burdens but called to cast ALL our burdens on him.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.1 Peter 5:6-7 KJV
Our own pride and arrogance make us want to pick up those burdens and carry them on our own shoulders like Santa’s pack of toys. We need to humble ourselves and cast off that twisted pack of worries and stress and give it to the Father. The only one strong enough to lift that burden. The one made to carry our burdens.
“Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP),
Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission. www.Lockman.org”
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