Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

More Than You Can Handle

by

After an hour-long conversation over coffee, two ladies shuffled around their table to leave and the louder woman said, “I know there’s a purpose, I just don’t know what yet.  You know that saying ‘God never gives you more than you can handle?’”

The other lady laughed as they walked out the door and said, “Yeah, sometimes I wonder if we should just be weaker.”

That quote has always bothered me.  ‘God never gives you more than you can handle.”  I guess I get what that quote is supposed to get at, but sometimes, I’m afraid it communicates the wrong idea.

Maybe it’s just me, but from what I can tell, God ALWAYS gives you more than you can handle. 

In fact, I think maybe the point of our circumstances is to show us we can’t handle it. 

And maybe it’s just me, but knowing ahead of time I’m not smart enough, strong enough, patient enough, wise enough or loving enough frees me up from the worry of how to get through it.  It’s only weak little me through Christ that handles anything.

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  1. THANK YOU! This bothers me too. He gives us more than we can handle so that we’ll lean into him and rely on HIM. I know, I’m proof. God has allowed so many things to affect our family in the past few years and people always offer “advice” that God must think we’re really strong to handle it. Nope, I’m not strong at all. But I’m relying on him to see me through it. And ultimately, this is for his glory, to show everyone that we were able to get through it by his hand and not our own.
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    • I think maybe there’s some truth to the idea that we’re all in different parts of our journeys and what may grow you might not grow me so perhaps it looks like one person might be “stronger” than the other. But really, I don’t know if you can compare it like that. We’re all different and need different things to grow and shape us. I think the bottom line is we’re not being put through something because we’re strong and can handle it, it’s because we have a weakness in that area he’s shaping. That’s just my observation though, not a revelation. I know God’s ways are not mine and maybe I’m off base.