The Bible Doesn't Say That - Part 5


God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle

One day I was whining a bit to a friend. I was complaining about how difficult life is. How I was experiencing financial problems due to a bankruptcy. Griping about how much work I was doing and how little free time I had to spend with my family. Fussing about some things the kids broke at home. Stressing over the fact that we had one car with three drivers and no possible means to get another. Fretting about health issues. After I unloaded all of this on him, he gave me a goofy little smile and said, “Well, God will never give you more than you can handle.”

I was suddenly like, Dude! Where do you get off telling me some lame religious mantra like that after I just bared my soul to you? Have you even read the Bible or is your life just a collection of Internet memes that have no basis in fact? Tell me where you found that in the Bible so that I can name it and claim it, because I have read it from cover to cover many times and do not remember ever seeing any promise like that.

I know. I know. You’re thinking, “He was just trying to find something to help make you feel better.” More like he was uncomfortable and just grasped for the first quasi-religious sounding thing that he could find to say.

Why do we do that? Why do we think that we must fill that uncomfortable silence with useless noise? With no regard to whether or not it has any truth to it, just as long as we can pat them on their back, put a smile on our face, and give a great sounding bit of advice. Like telling someone hanging from the edge of a cliff, “Don’t let go!” Duh! Great advice. Do you have anything useful to tell me.

Everyone experiences problems. We just learned last week that suffering is something that is part of life and we will all go through it at some point. God allows some suffering because He loves us and loves others and wants to see us grow and overcome. But does that mean that He will only allow us to suffer to the extent that we can handle everything? No. Because all of life ends in death. I think that in itself shows we can’t handle everything thrown at us.

As we finish our series, The Bible Doesn’t Say That, we look at what the Bible actually has to say about this erroneous saying.

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort.
For we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life.  (2 Corinthians 1:3-8, HCSB)

More Than I Can Handle
In this letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wants the followers of Jesus to understand that while in Asia his team was completely overwhelmed—beyond their own strength. They were filled with despair.

That despair led them to understand something very important about their ministry. While they were in despair, God was using them to help comfort others. While they were overwhelmed, God was using them to support and help others. He shares this by saying in verse 6, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.”

Paul was being very real and honest with the church. He wanted them to know that life is hard. That God has called us to do things that we cannot do. We are suffering with affliction because of what God has called us to do. We were depressed. We were desperate. We thought it would be the end of us. In fact, they tried many times to kill us.

But, all of that was done so that you, the people of this church, would be come to know Jesus. So that you could be comforted in the knowledge of your salvation. So that you could be safe and secure in the arms of Jesus.

God does give you more than you can handle.

Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and He will deliver us. We have put our hope in Him that He will deliver us again 11 while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:9-11, HCSB)

Not More Than God Can Handle
While God may give you more than you can handle, it is important to understand that God will never ask you to do something that is too much for Him to handle.

Paul said that they voluntarily gave themselves a death sentence so that they would stop relying on their own abilities. Instead they would trust in God who raises the dead.

He is saying that they chose to die to self and live for Christ. To put aside their own desires, their own goals, their own agendas, and focus instead on what God had for them to do.

Why would you be willing to set aside yourself and give complete control of your life to God? Paul said it is because of the terrible death that we were facing before we met Jesus. Before we repented of our sins, we were condemned to an eternity separated from God. An eternity in Hell. That is the terrible death that Paul was speaking about. Yet God delivered us from that terrible death.

Handle with Prayer
God delivered Paul from that horrible death and Paul said he had faith that God could deliver them again. From what? From whatever situation or problem or issue or frustration or struggle or whatever they found themselves in.

We will often find ourselves in over our head. We are not able to do everything on our own and we get into even more trouble when we try. God designed us to be part of a family. A family that helps each other. And God is the Father of that family and He is able to help whenever we find ourselves in too deep.

Why would He be willing to get us out of trouble time and time again? Because of His great love for us and because when He does He gets the glory. A church that comes together, grows together, and serves together, brings honor and glory to God.

"God gets glory when people who dress, eat, talk, and live differently join around the table for a meal with one heart." Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer

The church is there to help encourage us, the sustain us, to help us, to share with us, to grieve with us, to laugh with us, to rejoice with us, to serve with us, and to pray with us. We are meant to be a part of the family of God.

How did the church in Corinth help Paul? By praying for him. “11 while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:11). The prayers of the fellow believers, of those that were followers of Jesus, helped to sustain them during the times that they were completely overwhelmed and in despair.

Do you pray for our church leaders? Do you pray for each other? Do you pray for the little children of the church? Do you pray for those who have yet to come to church? Do you pray for the lost? We are called to support each other through prayer. To be a part of God’s deliverance of others by our prayer. God will do the heavy lifting, but we are to lift each other in prayer.

God may give you more than you can handle, but it will never be more than He can handle. And whatever we face, we are to handle it with prayer.

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