God will never give you more than you can handle. Growing up I believed this common “christian” phrase meant to
reassure us that we can overcome the obstacles put in front of us. But that’s not true.
We cannot overcome the obstacles in front of us, whatever they may be, on our own. Thankfully we don’t have to face them alone. Jeremiah 1:19 says this,”‘They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,’ declares the LORD.”
Our God wants to help us, and He cares about us. Even though we are weak and very often face challenges bigger than we can handle, God gives us the strength we need to accomplish His will.
We so often think that, when we are going through trials, we are not good enough because we are not able to get through this challenge on our own. We forget that we weren’t made to get through things on our own. We weren’t made to handle everything. We were made to rely on Jesus Christ, and though we never seem to do this, it is what we were made to do.
This phrase reveals that so often our inclination is to be independent. We always want to do it ourselves so we can boast about what we did, even if it was a good thing. We don’t want to admit to the fact that we as humans are weak and cannot do much on our own. But there will be times where we encounter more, sometimes much more, than we can handle.
One thing that we cannot handle even in small situations without God’s help is the casting out of demons. Acts 16:28 says,”She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment,” Only the power of Jesus Christ can cast out demons.
If the saying, ” God will never give you more than you can handle,” were true, we would be able to do everything without any intervention from God, or even angels. From reading the Bible we know that this is not the case.
Though this is a simple and christian-sounding statement, it is nonetheless false, and though God will give you more than you can handle, take assurance from the fact that He will never give you more than He can handle.
Amen!!