coffee talk: more than we can handle?
February 4, 2009
Did you know the Bible doesn’t tell us that God won’t give us more than we can handle?
It’s not in there. I’ve looked.
It does tell us that He won’t let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. There’s the promise that in every moment we feel inclined to sin, there is a way out. We need to look for that door and walk through it.
But to me that’s a very different promise than the one most people walk around (mis-)quoting.
What do you think? Do you think God won’t give us more than we can handle?
(You can catch up on old Coffee Talks here…)
I think the mis-quote is expressed with the best intentions by well meaning friends. However, once I was on the receiving end of that quote, it made me feel as though I was doing something wrong.
I believe this broken world can, will, and does very often give us more than we can handle on our own. So God does give us community. Sometimes that will not be enough and more professional help is needed.
It’s a very ‘black and white’ question to me. Do Christians seriously believe none of them ever commit suicide??
No.
I agree with Ric though, and also believe there exists at least one, and quite often many more than just one, solution. to any problem. if we have the courage to accept them.
Developing an unshakeable Faith in Him and in Jesus’ Promises to those who are in Him can help make those solutions more ‘accessable’ than finding them all ‘alone’.
Troubles shared….
I do know however that for some it is their faith – or those they were taught to trust in who represent part of that faith – that is where the trouble can ‘lie’.
(as in deceive us).
<B
Well, when Joshua and Caleb came back from checking out Canaan, the Israelites definitely thought it was WAY more than they could handle.
There are dozens of stories like this one. He frequently gives us much more than we can handle without Him. With Him…nothing is impossible.
Very insightful post.
i’m SOOOOO with you on this, muffin!!!!
That would have been a good question for Job.
I definitely think God can give us more than we can handle…so that we MUST turn to Him. When I learned this during a Beth Moore study a few years ago, it just blew me away. And made so much sense. And scared me a little.
I was going to agree with Louise.
He often gives us way more than we can handle. This way, the glory remains His.
Though, this also becomes a cheeky answer, or so it might seem, in the face of trouble. “Lean on God. He’ll carry you through.” Ugh, I don’t know how much I can say that I dislike hearing that phrase and still be a “good Christian.” But it gets to me. I don’t like it because (though true) it is often a smiley-faced answer given to too-hard problems.
It’s hard. Hard to go through things that we were not made to handle. Hard to give those things to God. Hard to keep going through with His plan when it seems to do nothing but hurt.
Beyond what he gives and allows (how’re those for technical terms in this issue!?), I think it is most important to remember the outcome. Luke 5:5-6 come to mind. But even when we don’t see the results on Earth – we’ll get to be with Him and have Him show us the bigger picture we’d missed while here.
I think of Abraham and Isaac…God just wanted to see that Abraham was totally obedient. He wanted to know that even if He called on him to sacrifice his only precious on..if he would do it. He provided a way out. I’m sure the journey up that mountain was way MORE than Abe could handle. God will give us more…He will give us more depending on how deep we are walking in our walk. I think He gives more to those closer to Him to make them go deeper…to be refined more.
The beauty…He will be in that trial and situation with us! He is there and His grace is what sustains and helps us make it through. The most important lessons I’ve learned in my life were from times where I walked through deep valley’s clinging to His hand. Did He pull me out when I was afriad? No..but He was there guiding me.
Love you!
And why is so much of what we say to one another more designed to make ourselves feel better?
Perhaps instead we need to embrace our helplessness – so God can finally be God.
precious son….not on…oops
That statement seems cliche.
I think life and relationships get too heavy and more than we can handle alone.
One thing that is in the bible is that God didn’t think it was okay to be alone.
TOGETHERw/God, friends and family, I think we can walk into situations/brokeness that we have never had before and find courage, hope, and lessons.
I think that’s where we find God.
i think God is a God that likes to challenge us and the world we live in we walk into things, sometimes not knowing ahead of time what we are getting ourselves into but in the end their is always a way out.
as cheeesy of a sunday school answer this sounds but Jesus loves me no matter what i’ve done and my whole life is for his glory. in the end i think God knows what we can handle whether we know know it or not.
dangggg ginaaaa, DONE.
I find that for me, I always think I can handle less than I really can. After I have gone through the situation and come out on the other side I think, wow…I guess I can handle that….even though I thought in the beginning I couldn’t.
On my own, I cannot handle too much, but with God’s hand leading me, I can handle more than I ever thought I could. :)
I believe that God won’t give us more than He can handle.
Was thinkin’ bout you (prayin’ too)… received your recent flyer… read the whole thing front to back… thank you for including me. IT WAS AMAZING! WOW! Seriously, thanks for including me (our fam). Very sweet.
Blessings,
Roxanne
To me, they mean the same thing… because what happens when things get to be more than we can handle? We have a choice… we either turn to God (which we actually should be doing long before things get too hard for us to handle on our own), or we are tempted to sin and find another way out.
Like everyone else said…it’s no promise that things won’t get ‘too’ difficult, whatever that might mean. Rather, it’s a promise that no matter how difficult things get, and no matter how we are tempted to try to escape those difficulties, God is ALWAYS there for us, to sustain us, give us peace despite the turmoil, and hold us in His arms.
It’s not about us and our ability to withstand anything. It’s all about Him.
((((hugs))))
It is funny the things people attribute to the Bible.
I know He loves us. I know He is a good Father. And I know His grace is sufficient. Grace is not something that will help us just to “slide by” but Grace is the power of God to help us overcome and move on to victory.
The same power that raised Him from the dead lives in us.
i am really enjoying all the feedback on this. keep it comin’!
Yes I think that is a very big distinction and yes I think that people use both to make them feel better rather then taking responsibility for what is going on in their lives.
Hmmmm. You know where I am on this at the moment. I think we are in the same place on this.
There is a saying I’ve always clung to though. It’s not the one talked about here, but it does sort of hit on it……
“The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.”
No matter the circumstances, no matter if it IS more than we can handle, God will always hold us while in the midst of it.
I should probably take my own advice eh? ;-)
Love you.
What do you think?
I think having coffee with you is a very nice idea and I am a wee bit jealous of those who have actually had that privileged in “flesh” life.
Do you think God won
maybe it would possibly depend on what one considers “too much to handle”. i mean if you have a person that is strong willed they may be able to take something that would seem to be too much ok. and vise versa. but i think i agree with what you wrote though.
I’m thinking if He didn’t give me more than I could bear, I would be doing everything in my own strength. I wouldn’t be turning to Him and His strength.
I think He gives us more than WE can handle, but not more than HE can handle.
Sometimes the weight appears unbearable…
He is our strength.
ooooh Michelle….chills.
That mis-quote has driven me crazy for years because I know the love that is often behind those well-meaning folks who say it but it just so often leaves the person hearing it feeling as if there is something wrong with them. “If God won’t give me more than I can handle, why can’t I handle this?” It pains me so much and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve simply hugged and held people as they’ve cried because they feel like such failures – only to find out they’ve misunderstood God’s promise for so long. A double-whammy often. The best part of that, though, is healing can truly begin. The truth… truth sets you free…
I think a lot of things are too much for us to handle.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I think if we tried, we couldn’t handle very much on our own. We would look pretty pathetic. With God’s strength though, when we are weak, we can handle a lot because it is not even us handling anything, it is God.
…I guess that’s kind of what Michelle said though.
it doesn’t say that, but it does say “my grace is sufficient for me”. so to me, that reads that i can handle all things just because His grace is enough.
sufficient for YOU. oops!
Ok, I haven’t read through all the responses yet, so sorry if this is redundant…
I think there are many mistakes in this quote… first of all, it makes it sound like God’s just playing around with us… giving us trials to see how much we can take. I don’t think God is all willy-nilly like that. The other thing is the MAIN thing that gets me into trouble: thinking I can handle anything. Because I can’t… the moment I put something in my hands it turns to dust. I can only get through things that He handles for me.
The other thing that frustrates me is that I’m absolutely sure I threw around that phrase at some point in my life. Then I got sick and started living in pain, and realized that cliches are the most non-comforting words ever. Truly.
I think it needs to be rephrased – There isn’t anything that I can’t trust God to handle. He is with me through all of life. David reitterated that throughout the Psalms. Job went through life’s worst and God was there.
Life is too much for us to handle… I am too much to handle (for me and others sometimes)…but thankfully it is never to much for Him and neither am I…even when I break down because I can’t handle something.
we probably don’t know what we can handle.
so we’ll never really know if he gives us more than we can handle. he’s our father, so I don’t think he’ll break us just cause he can. he might cause we need it though.
maybe the whole point is that we can’t handle anything on our own. well that’s kinda comforting and scary and the same time.
i personally think that He will give us more than we can handle….why would we need him if we could handle it all without Him?!?
He always gives us a way out…we rarely see the best way for us. praise God, He is always there to pick up our pieces.
still praying.
I didn’t read through all the comments b/c Bible study is starting in 10 minutes… but I’m so glad someone finally said it out loud- that that vs in 1cor 10:13 is often misquoted… i thought it was just ME and that there must be some other spot that says God won’t give us more than we can handle. I think he totally DOES give us more than we can handle, otherwise we’d be self-dependant (sp?) instead of depending on Him, esp when the times get tough.
don’t you feel overwhelmed at times w/ what ‘life’ throws at you? we cannot handle it all on our own, and we shouldn’t try. i think the problem lies when we dont’ feel the freedom to be able to say “this is just too much for me. I love God, I trust Him, but I can’t handle this hurdle, it’s one too many.”
I dunno. i’m writing in a rush. hope that makes a little bit of sense and that I didn’t just repeat what the other 30+ commenters just said.
I like all these answers here. Particularly my sister’s. (what can I say? we’re family.) The phrase ‘more than we can handle’ is a bit of an enigmatic phrase, I think, because … who’s standard is it being determined by? What I think I can handle? Or what God thinks I can handle? I think if we hear in that phrase the latter … the effect of the verse is the same. If we hear the previous … we’re in trouble. If we hear the previous, we will face something truly huge and say, “I can’t handle this,” and be tempted to think that God abandoned us. When of course that is simply not true. So when does temptation come? In trials that are bigger or stronger than us in some way. The ones we are victorious over … not much of a chance of them being either overwhelming or being a temptation for sin. So I do think it depends greatly on what you hear when you hear that phrase. However, you are right. The Bible does say “temptation.” I am reminded also of the passage, “come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and you shall find rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That verse indicates to me that quite a few things are rather upside down of what we think of them being. Because the only way to see that as truth is to alter some VERY significant ideas in our own heads.
I feel like I’m rambling. If this is making sense to you, that’s a plus. :)
well if God didnt give it to me then i sure took it for myself! either way i have too much to deal with. i went to the dr and am on anti depressants and also got some sleeping pills. What I really need is some strong something or other to knock me out for a few months! but until then my sister is coming for the next week to help out with con. keep me in your prayers Alece.
I don
P.S. Love the elephants … and the great conversation.
such rich, rich thoughts here. thank you guys. a lot.
Hmm. I think I’ve misquoted that a lot. And it makes sense. I mean, He has to give us more than we can handle so we’ll run to him, right?
God won’t give us more than He can handle. Being who He is, that doesn’t really put a limitation on the load does it? But we do have to remember that we often take on more that He has given us :-).
I rediscovered a great quote by Hudson Taylor yesterday… “It doesn’t matter how great the PRESSURE is. What really matters is where the PRESSURE lies – whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” Isn’t that just sweet to your soul? Man, I needed that!
I am totally going to post this comment on my blog :-)
God won’t give us more than He can handle. Being who He is, that doesn’t really put a limitation on the load does it? But we do have to remember that we often take on more that He has given us :-).
I rediscovered a great quote by Hudson Taylor yesterday… “It doesn’t matter how great the PRESSURE is. What really matters is where the PRESSURE lies – whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” Isn’t that just sweet to your soul? Man, I needed that!
I am totally going to post this comment on my blog :-)
I meant more THAN He has given us.
I meant more THAN He has given us.