Why God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle

I’ve heard the following phrase enough over the past ten years that I can almost steal the words from someone before they manage to escape their tongue: “God never gives us more than we can handle.” If these words are meant to encourage the hurting party directly then they’ll say, “Well, God will never give you more than He knows you can handle.” Comforters and counselors have this card handy and ready to draw when ever they’re in situations of suffering and tragedy. For many, these nine short words are often used as a last resort when the comforting party cannot come up with anything else to say. Sometimes, they can even be supplemented by a hearty pat and rub on the back or a confident look of assurance from the comforter, directly into the eye of the hurting party. These encouraging augmentations might actually bring comfort if the phrase, “God never gives us more than we can handle” was actually true.

The truth is, these nine words, that have been used time and time again in and out of Christian circles could not be further from the very truth that makes Christians, Christians. I know this first hand because God recently gave my wife and I something that we most certainly were not equipped to handle; we lost our son, Micah, at birth. We were and are faced with enduring something that we personally do not have the strength for. It goes without saying that death and dying are a part of this world that rock and sometimes shatter the infrastructures of people everywhere. The stories of people being effected by death and never recovering from the wounds are innumerable. So, when those nine words manage to force their way into someones rattled heart I’m less inclined to say, “Yes, I know,” and more inclined to say, “Really? I can’t believe that and still believe in the God of the Gospel.”

Here’s why:

To say that God never gives us more than we can handle is to say that God, in His love for us in times of tragedy and suffering leans in to us and says, “Well, my son, you know I never give you more than you can handle so. . .you’re on your own. You’ve got this. Tough it out. I love you.” To believe those slippery nine words is to believe that God’s desire for humanity is to walk out the hard roads of life on their own, in shoes made by their own hands. God’s only job is to give us a good, solid push on our way into on coming fire and wish us the best of luck.

This ever so common phrase is not God’s desire for man, it is not the Gospel, and it nullifies the cross of Christ and all that He accomplished.

The deep and short truth of the matter is that God does indeed allow overwhelming things like death and sickness to enter our lives and these things are too much for us to handle. The good news is that He is with us, because of what His Son has done. He will comfort us with a strength not our own. He will give us a joy awash with the saving blood of his Son and not the proverbial blood we shed in vain when we try to hold the prongs of death and suffering with our own hands. Life in a fallen world, with all of its traps, trials and broken surprises is more than any of us can handle. Strength is found in the Creator and the truth that Christ in us, is greater than anything that is in the world. We are not saved from hell by our own power and God does not intend for us to enter His Kingdom in our strength. For this, we ought to worship Him--He gives us great grace.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

2 Corinthians 4:7

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. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

2 Corinthians 1:9-10