God Will Not Give You More Than You Can Handle
Have you ever experienced a time when you overwhelmed and this saying helped you?
Some Christians reference Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to support the use of this phrase:
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. —1 Corinthians 10:13
So what’s the problem?
Reflecting on the Problems
First Problem: In reference to 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul is not talking about all the bad things that happens to us in life, he is talking about
Second Problem: When we say, “God will not give you more than you can handle,” the first part of the phrase implies that whatever difficulty or pain we experience, it’s God who gives it to us. God is the
( Message 1: Everything Happens For a Reason)
God does not give us suffering. Rather, God is with us and for us through all the ups and downs in life. We are not alone. God gives us everything we need to walk through dark times and come out on the other side with a renewed sense of meaning, purpose, and value.
Can you think of a time when you were overwhelmed with grief, depression, anxiety, or fear. An event you thought might break you? How was God present? Did God help you recover? Did you find joy again? Although God didn’t cause it, did God find a way to bring anything good out of it?
Here are two passages of scripture that can help us when we suffer:
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” It doesn’t say that God puts us in the valley of death, but that God will be with us in the valley of death.” —Psalm 23:4a
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” —Psalm 46:1-3
Third Problem: When we say, “God will never give you more than you can handle,” we may assume that if we remain in God’s good graces, we will never face hardships that we cannot handle on our own. But experience teaches us that everyone, at some point in life, gets overwhelmed and needs help. When this happens we face two dangers.
- We may be tempted to think that we are suffering because we did something that took us out of God’s
- We may assume that because we are good Christians, we will never experpience hardship that we can’t handle on our own. This is a form of denial that can make it dififcult for us to reach out for
Summary
The phrase, “God will not give you more than you can handle,” is problematic because it lacks scriptural support, runs the risk of blaming God for our suffering, and makes us reluctant to ask for help when we need it the most. In thinking through this phrase, we’ve been reminded that all of us go through difficulties that we cannot handle on our own, and if we turn to God, He will give us the courage, strength, and hope we need to keep moving forward. He will guide us through the darkness and lead us to a brighter day. Furthermore, God almost always does this through other people in our lives. We just need to admit our need and ask for help, trusting that God is working in the process.
Rephrasing
Instead of saying, “God will never give me more than I can bear,” we can rephrase it to be more helpful and biblical:
“No matter what life throws at me, I can handle it with God’s help and the support of the people that God puts in my life.”
Application: Questions for Reflection
How can we let the message of the rephrasing sink from our heads to our hearts? How would your life change if you truly believed that God was working through the people around you to help in times of trouble? How would it strengthen your faith? How would it help you navigate suffering? How would rephrasing this common saying help you bring more comfort to others who are going through hard times?