What We Can Handle

Maybe you’ve heard the saying: God will never give us more than we can
handle. I’d never thought much about that idea until I found myself in
Guatemala, begging God not to let both of my grandparents pass away while I
was gone.

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My grammy had been sick when I left for my semester abroad, and I’d said a
different kind of goodbye to her. But now my pop-pop had cancer too? How
could this be happening?

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“This is too much!” I cried out to God. “It’s more than I can handle.”

In that moment, God’s peace surrounded me like a hug. And I knew that even
if it was too much for me to handle, I wouldn’t go through it alone. He was
with me. My focus had been on trying to cope with the pain on my own, but
instead, I had to surrender my suffering to God.

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The truth is, God never promises not to give us more than we can handle. In
fact, before Jesus went to the cross, He told His disciples, “In this world
you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John
16:33). And after Jesus rose from the dead, He told them, “I am with you
always” (Matthew 28:20). It is the strength of Jesus that allows us to
continue forward through a broken world, not our own strength.

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I also think of Paul, who endured an immense amount of suffering to share
the gospel (the good news about Jesus). Paul was imprisoned, flogged,
beaten, shipwrecked, endangered, and the list goes on. Paul didn’t handle
all this by his own strength. Paul depended on God.

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So even when the worst happens—when the mountains fall and the earth gives
way, when we’re afraid of losing someone we love, when life just isn’t
going the way we expected—we don’t have to worry about our own ability to
handle it. God is our strength, and God is with us, always. • Becca
Wierwille

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• Can you think of a time you felt like God was giving you more than you
could handle? How did that impact your relationship with Him?

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• Read 1 Corinthians 10:13. How is this verse different from the phrase,
God won’t give us more than we can handle? What would be a more helpful
saying to tell people who are going through difficult things?

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“I [Jesus] have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In
this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the
world.” John 16:33 (NIV)

Read Verses:

Psalm 46:1-Psalm 46:3; John 16:16-John 16:33; 2 Corinthians 11:16-2 Corinthians 11:33