Journal Journey 4

“The Lord won’t give me more than I can handle.”

I've been saying this quote every minute of the last few days. I seriously have been repeating out loud to anyone who would listen. You see, right now, in my house, we are moving... we are scheduled to be out of our current place by December 17, 2010 - we have started packing... but we also have a three year old. Which means, things don't always happen how I would like them to happen!

But in addition to our rambunctious, stubborn, full of energy, delightful, challenging, boundary testing, full of laughter, child, we also have other stuff on our plate. My husband works full time, he is currently working nights, and I am working for Girls Only, as well as a few other tasks the Lord has given to me. So... is it true... "The Lord won't give me more than I can handle"

This gets thrown around a lot. I say it a lot and I say it to other people a lot. My intention is to try to encourage a friend or family member whenever times are tough, however, recently, the phrase would not leave my mind and I have been on the journey for truth, so I have decided to dig into a little bit.

I understand the importance of encouragement, I for one, thrive off of words of encouragement… but more than anything, I want TRUTH! While this phrase sounds very positive and affirming, you will not find “God won’t give you more than you can handle” anywhere within the pages of the Bible. It simply doesn’t exist.

What you will find is the verse that it appears to be a misquotation of, 1 Corinthians 10:13:

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. (emphasis mine)

Through my research, I have come to learn TRUTH POINT #1: God does not tempt anyone.

James 1:13 emphatically states, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

So, while God does not tempt us, He does, in His sovereignty, permit us to be tempted. This is to grow us in holiness. When Paul writes that God will not tempt us beyond our ability, Paul means that we are never in a situation where have no other choice but to sin.

In a situation where telling the truth will damage your reputation, for example, it’s much easier to give in to the temptation to protect how people see you and lie, rather than do the right thing, which is tell the truth. TRUST ME, the temptation of protecting one’s reputation, or “testimony”, is near and dear to me. But again, I have been on this journey of TRUTH…

And I have learned that easy rarely equals right. We always have the option of doing the right thing, that which is honoring to God, but it will often cost us—whether that cost is reputation, position, relationship, or money, there will be a cost.

TRUTH POINT #2: God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to do what is right, He will almost always give us more than we can handle on our own. Learning this little piece of truth has not helped my overwhelmed, stressed out, tired, self. But again, it is about the journey of truth!

Over again in the Bible, we see men and women who are given far more than they can handle. The prophet Jeremiah is a great example; he was charged with preaching repentance to the people of Israel, a calling that caused him to be beaten, plotted against and rejected by everyone, even his own family. Emotionally, that was far more than he could handle (as we see in his many laments).The ministry of the Apostle Paul is probably one of the most powerful examples of this truth found in Scripture.

In 2 Corinthians 11:21-30, he tells us the following:

But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Paul doesn’t tell us these things to boast in how he took all this suffering and adversity like a man—he does it so that we might know that God will always give us more than we can handle. He ”boasts of the things that show my weakness” (v. 30) because those things show his (and our) dependency on the power and mercy of God. Earlier in this letter to the Corinthian church, Paul exhorts his readers with the following:

For we do not want you to be ignorant, 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 (2 Corinthians 1:8,9, emphasis mine).

What he tells them is this: “We were so afflicted that we thought we were going to die! We were burdened beyond our ability, and we could not handle it—But God gave us this adversity and burden so that we would rely on Him who can!”God is making it clear that we are not self-sufficient. We cannot just hunker down and power through every situation. And we cannot white-knuckle our way to holiness. We need Him. So maybe we need to stop seeing the trials and adversity in our lives as a burden, as an indication that God doesn’t love us. Maybe we need to start seeing them as proof that God indeed loves us very much—so much so that He will not let us try to rely on our own strength, but continue to show us that we must rely on Him to endure suffering and persevere until the end.

So… as overwhelmed as I am, as tired as I am, as stressed out and cranky as I have been today, I will no longer look myself in the mirror and say to myself “He will not give me more than I could handle…” Because if it is not TRUTH, it is NOT from Him, and if it is NOT from HIM, it is from the enemy, who will not have a place in my life. So back off you evil nasty thing, get behind me and take your stinking lies with you!

Instead, I will look at myself in the mirror and say TRUTH POINT #3: “I will not have to walk through this without HIM, He is with ME, and together, WE can do this.” I will repeat over and over again “Jesus loves me this I know, for HIS WORD, tells me so”… I will run to His word, I will journal all of my frustrations and stress. I will talk with Him as I walk through this stressed out time in life. Because this I do know:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

TRUTH POINT #4: I do KNOW that HE sent His Son to die for ME, I do know that I am HIS and HE is mine… so let’s do this thing!