“God won’t give you more than you can handle”…really?

“God won’t give you more than you can handle”…really?

I have always struggled with this and honestly never liked this phrase. It’s said a lot but I never even asked God why I didn’t like it. I heard it again and again and again till I was like, “Ok, God! Why do I not like this saying?” He replied, “I am your strength.”

You see the world puts on a face of:

I’m Brave.

I’m a Warrior.

I’m Bold.

I’m a Fighter.

And I know without a doubt each and everyone of you are these things but let’s just put down our “face” at the moment because….

Has God called us to be these things or have we called ourselves to be these things?

I believe God doesn’t put bad things on us for we know that He wants a good future for us. He sent His Son to die for us. He sent His Holy Spirit as a comforter to be with us and guide us. He’s always there for us. BUT “rain falls on the just and the unjust.” AND He wants us to not rely on our own understanding, our own strength, but on His.

As hard as it is to put this “face” on, at the end of the day sometimes we feel defeated. We feel unaccomplished. We feel worthless. We feel unqualified. Because (not all the time) but sometimes we try going throughout the day without giving it to God. We don’t give Him a second thought and we try to scramble through our little brain that He created, to figure out, “Why is this happening?”, “Why am I having a bad day?”, “Why does this stuff only happen to me?”, “Why am I feeling this way?” type of thinking. So does God do these bad things to me? No, my friend, but He wants you to give every bad thing to Him.

The Bible says in Job that God let the Devil do anything to Job except kill him. The Devil wanted Job to think and know he couldn’t handle it. And Job knew that. He really had to rely on God for his strength or he would have cursed God and died like his wife suggested.

Why didn’t God just take this away from Job?

Truth is, God will help you THROUGH what has been given to you.

The three Hebrew men – do you think they could have handled the fire? No. Even the guards throwing them in burned up and died because it was too hot. They had to fully rely on God. They had to put their faith, hope, and trust in Him and that is how He got them through it.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

Hard times aren’t to weaken us but they do just the opposite. Turning to God is what makes us stronger. For yes, when we are weak, He is strong and He will abide in us if we abide in Him. God always makes a way through every temptation for us to overcome and endure it.

I’m writing this to just encourage us that we don’t have to put on this “face” that wasn’t given to us by God in the first place. I just feel that the world has made this fake reality that we should be able to handle these things of life on our own when we weren’t ever meant to. We weren’t ever created to make it on our own. Don’t beat yourself over an expectation that was given by yourself that you can’t handle and you feel like such a failure. No one has ever lost giving it over to God.

I know I’m speaking to myself more than anyone for I want to handle everything in my own strength. I always put on a face that everything is perfect when in reality I sometimes can’t do it all. God hasn’t called us to do it all but just to do our part. We just need to ask and receive God’s strength to overcome what’s needed for today.

Look what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

Remember – everyone says that God won’t give you more than you can handle. The Truth is that He helps you handle what you have been given.