A couple of weeks ago I again heard someone claim “I know God won’t give me more than I can handle, but I wish He didn’t trust me so much!” This person was a good Christian, but they’re not alone… Christians (especially American Christians) often make reference to this belief that God won’t give you more than you can handle.
The problem, of course, is that it’s NOT true and it’s NOT even in the Bible!
If God only allowed what we could handle on our own, then we would NEVER NEED GOD!
As humans, the only times most of us remember to even seek God’s help is when we ARE overwhelmed… THAT’s when we need God the most!
I started thinking about all of this the other day when I stumbled upon an entry in a day by day kind of guide that highlights events on any given day.
JULY 28 (1960)
American Trappist monk Thomas Merton confesses in a letter, “I can depend less and less on my own power and sense of direction—as if I ever had any. But the Lord supports and guides me without my knowing how, more and more apart from my own action and even in contradiction to it.”
— from This Day in Christian History by William D. Blake (Barbour:2011), entry for “July 28.”
As I read it, I immediately thought of what the Bible DOES say… and I turned to the Apostle Paul’s words in Phillipians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (NKJV)
When I feel like I’ve been given too much to handle, THAT’s proof that God is still trying to woo and draw me closer to Him! He’s deliberately allowed all the stuff of life to build up and start to overwhelm me so that I can remember that I NEED His help!
The question is: “Will I turn to Him and ask for His help or will I try to ‘handle it’ all by myself?”
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