God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle

   I have often heard it said by other Christians (and have often repeated it myself) that “God never gives us more than we can handle.” In other words, we will not face overwhelming physical and emotional experiences that are beyond our amount of strength. God always ensures that our pain, sorrow, and stress is kept at a manageable level. Although our lives might prove challenging, everything happens within our scope of control.

This perspective sounds reassuring at first glance. However, since the Bible doesn’t teach it, God must have a healthier perspective that’s better for us and more glorifying for him. Yes, God does promise a way of escape from every temptation to sin (1 Corinthians 10.13), but he absolutely allows us to face situations that far exceed our limited capacities to understand or cope with them. Let’s first prove this from Scripture before we discuss why he does so.

As he begins the letter of 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote that he and his companions were given more than they could handle. “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.” (2 Corinthians 1.8-9). Paul is probably referring to his ordeal in Ephesus, when the entire city was stirred up against him, causing his quick departure after living there for three and a half years (Acts 19.23-41). Although Paul was moved by God’s Spirit to speak the message of Jesus, possessed the ability to perform mighty miracles, and stood as an eyewitness to the resurrected Lord, Paul was flesh and blood like you and me. The fog of discouragement he felt was so powerful that he could not see through it.

Why did God allow Paul to go through this situation? Fortunately, Paul directly answers this question in the last half of 2 Corinthians 1.9 – “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” Remember, Paul had just said that he felt he had “received the sentence of death.” Even Paul, with all his spiritual maturity, needed a reminder of God’s ability to do what is impossible for man to accomplish. There are few events that so clearly show the exclusive hands of God more than the resurrection accounts in Scripture. Dead people come back to life only through the power of God (1 Kings 17.17-24, 2 Kings 4.32-37, Luke 7.11-17, Mark 5.34-43, John 11.39-44, etc.).

Situations like Paul’s have the potential to teach us valuable lessons we could not receive any other way. It is liberating to know that I don’t have to be strong enough to withstand the forces of life because I serve a God who is. Thank God that he does give us more than we can handle, because in those those occasions he wants to give us himself.

Nathan Combs