How many times have you had someone tell you when you are feeling overwhelmed to remember that God promises not to give us more than we can bear? Or that God must think you are so strong for Him to allow you to go through the difficult time or trial at the moment? They may even quote 1 Corinthians 10:13 to go along with it. “No temptation has overtaken you but such is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” All this is said as a well-meaning attempt to be encouraging and make someone feel better about their present situation or circumstances. The only problem is: 1) it is not true, and 2) it is not what that Scripture even says. Such has become another one of those “Inigo Montoya passages;” “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
The first issue with these supposedly comforting words is that they simply are not true. God doesn’t promise anywhere in Scripture that He will not give us more than we can handle. In fact, the opposite is typically the case. Everything we face in life is too much for us to bear in our own strength and might. Even the Apostle Paul confesses in 2 Corinthians 1:8 that he and his travel companions faced such struggles during their time in Asia that they “were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.” Sounds to me that he thought himself to be given more than he could bear or handle there. So much so it made life itself a chore or difficult for them to carry on. The Bible never teaches that we are strong enough to bear the weight and burdens of this life ourselves. Jesus made it clear that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is why we sing, “I must tell Jesus all of my trials; I cannot bear these burdens alone; In my distress He kindly will help me; He ever loves and cares for His own.” Our hope lies not in our strength and what we are able to carry but in Christ’s strength and what He can help us with. Without Him, we don’t stand a chance making it through whatever trial or trouble comes at us. The fact of the matter is that even the young “grow weary and tired” and “stumble badly” (Isaiah 40:30). We need the One who Himself “does not become weary or tired” to give us weary people His power and might so that we can “mount up with wings like eagles; run and not get tired; walk and not become weary” (vv. 28-29; 31).
It’s actually discouraging to tell someone that they have been given what they can bear or are strong enough to handle it. Because that encourages them to look to themselves for the ability to face the difficulty when they should be directed to Jesus instead. To recognize that what they can’t do, He can. The reason Paul gives for being put in the place where he got to the point of being so completely drained of his strength that he despaired of life itself was “so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). It very well may be that God’s purpose in giving us more than we can bear is so that we have to look to Him for the necessary strength to endure it instead of inside of us as Paul reports God did with him.
The truth of the matter is not that God will not give us more than we can bear but that we will never be given more than His grace is sufficient to help us in our time of need. Paul learned this as well when he was begging the Lord to remove the painful annoying persistent “thorn in the flesh” as he refers to it in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8. He doesn’t specify what this thorn was but clearly it was something he felt he could not bear and wanted rid of. And while God doesn’t answer His prayer in the way he asked it, He reminds him of the blessed and glorious truth that “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). Perhaps that would be a better verse and encouragement to give to that believing friend or family member who is struggling right now. Not that he or she has the strength to handle whatever it is but that the reality is that they do not but God’s grace will prove sufficient to get them through the trial and His power will be demonstrated in their weakness.
Now, what about that 1 Corinthians 10:13 passage? What does it really say and mean? Well, when you read it carefully, you will see that it is not talking about God giving us ANYTHING more than we can bear generally but only that of being TEMPTED specifically. The promise is that God in His sovereignty will not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able to resist. It is almost as if He is holding back the tide of temptation that wants to mount itself against us to drown us and filtering through His hand so to speak just enough that we can withstand it. And God shows His faithfulness also in providing the way of escape so that we don’t have to ever give into the temptation. There is always an off ramp with Jesus for all the temptations we may ever face. We can look to Him and flee from it, whatever the temptation might be. That’s the encouragement this verse gives us in our fight against sin. That temptation is not an insurmountable foe for us that will always win. Let’s be sure to use the verse to provide this encouragement rather than discouraging others (and ourselves) by pointing them to themselves for what it takes to get them through their trials instead of outside and away from themselves to Christ. He is the One we need to make it through every trial and withstand each temptation. We must continually look to and rely on Him.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Lee
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