Does God Give Us More Than We Can Handle?
We’ve all grown up hearing one thing or another about what the Bible supposedly says or doesn’t say. These may be things handed down from one generation to another, or something picked up within the culture from things like books and movies. We call this “folk theology” and it can be both amusing and dangerous when it comes to understanding what the Bible really does say.
In this brief article, I want to look at a very common belief that you hear all the time: “God will not give you more than you can handle.”
So, is this statement actually Biblically true?
There is nothing in Scripture that teaches that God never gives us more than we can handle. In fact, it’s the opposite. God gives us more than we can handle to mold us more into the image of Christ and drive us to Him.
But wait, doesn’t Paul say something about God not giving us more than we can handle?
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
The problem is: This verse speaks of temptation, not suffering.
Regarding tribulation and trials, Paul writes that we are to exult in our tribulations because they produce character:
“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5
God gives us more than we can handle to show us our frailty and cause us to cling more to Him.
Paul, despairing to the point of death with a “burden that is beyond his strength” so much so that he “despaired even of life”, writes:
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,”
2 Corinthians 1:8-10
So, we see that the Bible does teach that God can and does give us more than we can handle in our own strength. Those pressures drive us to our only hope… Jesus. They remind us that we are nothing and he is everything.