When God Gives You More Than You Can Handle

I hear Christians throw around this platitude constantly: God will never give you more than you can handle. It sounds nice, comforting. For the life of me I can’t find that promise in Scripture- anywhere. So where do we get this idea from? In fact, when I look around at all that my friends and family are going through, their circumstances shout in opposition to this nice phrase. I peer into their circumstances and think to myself, “How in the world are they managing that? That is beyond anything I could ever handle!”.

God doesn’t expect us to handle it. He opens His arms and says, “Are you tired of doing this on your own? When are going to begin to let me walk through this with you?”

Now, here is the most encouraging part…there are two words in the Bible that change everything. Two simple words repeated over and over again that take our difficult circumstances and turn them around. Are you ready? But God.

Say what?

Abraham set out early with Isaac to sacrifice his son…..BUT GOD provided a ram in the bush. Some of you have been there. Life has brought the death of your child or the love of your life and you felt like you died right along with them. Or you felt like you wanted to. And a decision was made: either pull yourself up by the bootstraps and press on OR admit to God that it was just too hard. I don’t want to press on through the pain anymore, BUT GOD…and somehow you’re still surviving.

Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery…..BUT GOD was with him. Been there? Your own family has betrayed you and deserted you. Or the person who was supposed to love you till death do you part? What will you choose? Put on a mask, put up a wall, wrap your heart with an impenetrable vine deeply rooted in bitterness, or cry out to God and say, “I am too angry to forgive, but I don’t want to live the rest of my life in this agony of hate! Please help me…”?

Nebuchadnezzar ordered Daniel to be thrown into the fiery furnace….BUT GOD rescued him. Had the heat turned up? Feel stuck in a no-win situation? Spent sleepless nights trying and trying to figure out a solution to no avail? Can you turn to God and say, “I just can’t get myself out of this one, Lord. I need you.”?

Paul was beaten, imprisoned, mocked, left for dead…..BUT GOD delivered him. Paul asserts, “I know He will continue to deliver me!”. Does life feel like a never ending battle? Do you stare death in the face every day and wonder why everything has to be so hard? God hasn’t put you there to be strong and handle it- to look in the mirror and give yourself a pep talk saying, “I’ve got this!”.

God does give us more than we can handle. Life isn’t easy. It’s when we come to the end of ourselves that we invite His power to come in and do something we never thought possible. Maybe it’s a miraculous deliverance or maybe it’s just strength enough to get through one more day….but it’s enough. Every time. 

Stop telling yourself and others that God never gives us more than we can handle, because it’s not true. God doesn’t expect us to handle everything on our own. In fact, He doesn’t want us to. He wants us to invite Him in….so take off your boots, get down on your knees and ask Him to help you. His arms are wide open, will you come?