I have recently been convicted that I
have believed a lie. This has been brought up over and over again in
the last week through unrelated people and it is time I pay
attention. Here it is. “God does not give us more than we can
handle.” I myself have said it to people so.many.times. Now, to
be fair, I have always said that God will bring us to the point of
suffering so that we might cling to Him. So how did it never dawn on
me that the simple truth of suffering contradicts the saying most
Christians use to make others feel better, that I too have been
guilty of saying. It isn't scriptural. I know you are trying to
think of the verse right now that the saying comes from. We tend to
remember it incorrectly and out of context. 1 Corinthians 10:13-”No
temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is
faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it.”
Did you catch that?
The verse is that we
will not be TEMPTED beyond what we can bear. It has nothing to do
with us bearing the burden of suffering. For a little more context
lets look at the entire passage. In Corinthians Paul is writing a
letter to the church in Corinth. Corinth was the site of the first
church, started by Aquila and Priscilla. Corinth also was a large
city located in between two important seaports. It was wealthy Roman
city that was well known for providing travelers pleasure.
Verse 6 starts by telling the church
that there were previous examples to “keep us from setting our
hearts on evil things”. The paragraph then goes on to warn against
idol worship, sexual immorality, testing God and complaining. Paul
then leads into the part we're discussing with verse 12, “if you
think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No
temptation...” I hope you can clearly see that this passage is
specifically talking about sin and temptation. God will not allow us
to be tempted beyond what we can bear. He always provides a way out.
No where in the passage does it say anything about suffering or
hardship.
That leaves us with the problem of
suffering and how that contradicts the saying that we have come
accustomed to using to make people feel better about their suffering
“God does not give us more than we can handle.”
Let's start out by looking at a few
examples. In John 11 we see the story of Lazarus from Bethany. His
sisters, Mary and Martha, sent for Jesus because they knew their
brother was very sick. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick he
stayed where he was two more days instead of hurrying back to heal Lazarus. After Lazarus was dead, Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus
had died. Only then did Jesus decide to return to Bethany. By the
time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four
days. Four days people...Mary and Martha suffered the grief of
losing their brother. Mary and Martha both told Jesus they knew he
could have healed Lazarus, but Jesus chose to bring them to the point
of suffering that Mary fell at Christ's feet and wept.
In Lamentations 3 the author is taken
to the point of suffering that “He (God) has broken my
bones...besieged me with bitterness and hardship...mangled me and
left me without help...trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived
of peace.” That's more than he could handle people. That's more
than any person can handle...and the author recognized that it is God
that took him to that place.
David suffered so much hardship. From
running for his life from Saul, to his infant son dying because of
David's own sin, to his own son trying to kill him and take his
throne. David said in Psalms that “My soul is in anguish...I am
worn out from groaning... My bones wasted away...my strength was
sapped.” David was taken past the point of what he could handle.
He was worn out and had lost all strength. We won't even go into
the story of Job. He suffered WAY more than he could handle.
So what does God promise us about hard
times? Will he give us more than we can bear? We can see from these
examples that, yes, he absolutely does. Why and what do we do about
it? This is where it gets beautiful. This world is just hard.
We're not meant to bear it alone. We're not meant handle it. God
takes us to the place where we can't possible handle the suffering so
that, like Mary, we might fall at the feet of Christ and weep. I
love how this is explained by the forward of the book The Problem of
Suffering, by Gregory P Schulz. “God's love, you see, is revealed
most vividly in the bitter suffering and horrific death of His
incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. Christians need not camouflage grief or
paint smiley faces on human suffering; we take our reality straight.
In the light of Christ's cross we can discover God at work in the
very midst of suffering.” Friends, Jesus suffered torture, bore
the grief and pain of every sin ever committed or to be committed,
death and, the worst of all, separation from God, his Father. That
was more than anybody could possibly bear. Only our perfect God
could bear such a burden. We don't have to bear it. God wants us to
get that ONLY HE can handle it.
God takes us to our breaking point so
that, like Mary, we can fall at HIS feet and weep. So that, like the
author of Lamentations, we can discover that “ (God's) compassions
never fail. The LORD is my portion therefore I will wait for Him.”
David really got it. In Psalms there is so much comfort and instruction for how
we survive times in which we have gone past the point that we can
bear. Ps 33:7- “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from
trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance”. Ps 3:3 “you
are a shield around me, O Lord...I will lie down and sleep; I wake
again, because the LORD sustains me.” Ps 71:1-3 “In you, O Lord,
I have taken refuge...Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness;
turn your ear to me and save me. Be my rock of refuge, to which I
can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and
my fortress.”
God lays it out himself in Isaiah 41
“I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my
righteous right hand.” We're not holding ourselves up. We're not
bearing the situation ourselves, God is holding us up. That is God's
promise. Not that He won't give us more than we can bear. We are
heirs in Christ's sufferings, but the beautiful thing is that God
holds us up when we can't possible bear any more and through that, we
also share in Christ's glory.
-amory
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