Life is More Than I Can Handle, But God Gave Me That

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080913110657AAEB7sh


I want to talk about something that many better writers have tackled in the past but that I feel the need to discuss none the less. I am a big supporter of knowing what the Bible says; if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you can’t keep his commands if you don’t know what they are. A big part of that is understanding the context as well as content, in other words knowing what it meant to the original audience given the circumstances of the time. While I am not the greatest student of God’s Word, I hold it in the highest regard because it is one of the major ways we can learn who God is.

Keeping this in mind, one of my pet peeves is the misuse, misquotation, and misinterpretation of Scripture. This can lead to misunderstanding who God is and what He wants for us and from us, which makes life harder, and life is hard enough when you know Scripture.

There are plenty of misquotes floating around to choose from; one of my favorites is ‘Money is the root of all evil’. The actual quote is ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’ (1^st Timothy 6:10, New International Version). The actual quote does not blame problems on money but a lust for it. I have heard this misquote used to justify not paying for stuff.

That example, however, is not the reason I chose to write this piece. I am writing because of a little gem that keeps showing up and while well meaning gives a false impression of reality. That phrase is ‘God will never give you more than you can handle’.

I have two major beefs with this statement: 1. People think it’s in the Bible and it isn’t. 2. It’s not really true.

The statement ‘God will never give you more than you can handle’ is never found in the Bible. At all. The verse that people often attribute this idea to is 1^st Corinthians 10:13, which states ‘No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.’(New International Version)

I would like to say that I can understand why people would get this meaning from the verse, but I really can’t. I think it’s just bad interpretation of Scripture, as evidenced in the link I attached. To come to this conclusion about the meaning of 1^st Corinthians 10:13 is to completely ignore the context of the verse in relation to the chapter. In the New International Version, chapter 10 has the heading ‘Warnings From Israel’s History’. It is a statement that the people of Corinth have as a little of excuse to sin as the Israelites who sinned against God even though He was in their midst. It is a statement that there is hope to escape from sin and that God has given us the ability to resist temptation. It is confrontation and affirmation, and it is not soft and fluffy.

Now to get to my big issue. If the statement ‘God will never give you more than you can handle’ is true, then how come I sometimes want to curl up in a ball on the floor and sing ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ in an unironic fashion?

The reality is I can’t really endure a lot on my own; my strength comes from God. I think that believing that God will never give me more than I can handle blinds me to how much I really need God. It gives me a false view of how dependent on God I am and of my own strength. When something comes along that I don’t feel I can handle, should I be angry at God for allowing it to happen? Should I then conclude that God is not good? From there we can go in all sorts of negative directions.

So why am I writing this, to attack people who like that saying? Yes, a thousand times yes. No, I am not. I am writing this because I want God’s truth to be known and His Word to be understood for what it says and means. I am writing this because I want to encourage you to cling to what God promises, not something that sounds nice but will let you down, so that you will know that if you seek God will all your heart you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13) and that He is with you in your pain.