Most misunderstood verse.
As my wife and i were going through a difficult situation recently, we were constantly bombarded with the reassuring thought that,"it's okay. God doesn't give you anymore than you can handle." And it was comforting. Until, I started to think about that statement for a moment. Suddenly, I had realized, i don't think i had ever read that anywhere in the Bible.
So, I started to do a small search for the verse that this kind statement was generated from. But, to my surprise, I never found anything in scripture that said that God would not give me or anyone else anything that "they couldn't handle".
This verse, 1 Corinthians 10:13, was the closest thing I could find to what people must have been meaning, but when looked at closer, it seems the translation...or the memorization of this verse....has been miscalculated frequently.
From this verse, I think it is clear that God is not in the business of looking at our limitations, what we can and can't handle, and then acting accordingly. On the contrary. God looks at his limitations when placing us or allowing us to be placed into any given situation. The funny thing is, he has no limitations. ALL things are possible by Him and through Him.
So, in essence, God WILL give you more than you can handle. Life WILL be unbearable on our own. Apart from God, there will be moments in our life that can utterly crush and destroy us, but this is not because God is cruel or vengeful. These moments are what C.S. Lewis called the "gift of suffering". It's these unbearable, difficult times that remind us that there is someone who can pull us from harms way, whether self inflicted or inflicted by others, and He is capable of finding a way out for us.
God WILL give us more than we can handle. He WILL allow it. But, we will not be alone in those moments. If we are able to focus on Him, on what truly matters, on our one and only Hope, our only source of strength...their will be a way out from underneath these tests and temptations in our lives. It will hurt. It will be hard. But, it will be so worth it...and whatever the outcome, with God, there will always be peace and victory on the other side.
Created over 2 years ago
