2 CORINTHIANS 1:8-9 – “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

THEME OF THE DAY: YES, HE DOES AND WILL.  Have you ever heard from a well-intended person, maybe even said it yourself to try and encourage someone who is going through a tough time, these words – “God will never give you more than you can handle?”   I think it is common and sounds good. Well, it might sound like good advice but there are two wrong things about those words.  First, it is bad advice, and secondly, it is bad advice because it isn’t true.  Without a doubt, God gives us more than we can handle.  Why?  Two reasons.

First to make us realize we are not independent beings in charge of our lives and able to control or change difficult circumstances or people in our lives.  In today’s scripture this truth came home to the Apostle Paul with great force. The lesson? We are not sovereign. Here are three translations emphasizing this truth.

“We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8b).

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it” (2 Corinthians 1:8b)

“We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength —so that we even despaired of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8b).

The second reason God gives us more than we can handle is so we will know the power of His love and grace in our lives.  Or we might say, “We learn to abide in Christ”.  It is in those times of drowning in life’s difficulties we realize like never before our need for Christ and intimacy with Him. It is a spiritual intimacy detailed for us in the Parable of the Vines and branches:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples. “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love” (John 15:1-9).

Pay attention to the middle part of that scripture.  Jesus doesn’t say, “Without Me, you can do something.”  No, He says, “Without me you can do nothing” and in those words, God shows us just how weak we are.

God will give us more than we can handle. He must. It is the only way we learn to cast all our cares upon Him, realizing how helpless we are without Him. When we arrive at that point – real helplessness – we discover the wonders of His strengthening grace that leads to true worship and adoration of the God of such grace.

PRAYER: Father, let me praise You when I am overwhelmed in life because You are teaching me to trust in You.

REFLECTION: It sounds good, but not true; God gives us more than we can handle in life to build trust in Him.