It’s a statement you’ve probably heard many times and it’s meant to be a rallying cry—”God won’t give you more than you can handle, so YOU’VE GOT THIS!”
But is it true?
Let’s step back and answer a different question:
What can we handle?
Let’s look at the fundamental task of breathing. Can we do that on our own? The Bible tells us that God is the one who puts breath in our lungs! “He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things” (Job 27:3).
If the simple task of breathing air into our lungs is more than we can handle, that means everything else is way over the top of our abilities. That financial decision, relationship issue, and work crisis? They’re high above our pay grade.
God never gives you more than you can handle?
I’d like to revise that statement to this one:
God may give more than you can handle,
but he never gives you more than he can handle.
However, there’s a really great reason God gives you more than you can handle.
It’s because he wants you to come to him for help. He wants your struggles today to be a reminder:
“You can’t handle this, but I can.”
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you” (Isaiah 42:5-6).
I love this topic so much, I wrote a book on it:
Come to Jesus: What if God Designs Our Days to Keep Us Running Back to Him?