suffering  Have you ever heard someone say, “God will never give you more than you can handle”? I can’t count the number of times someone has said those exact words to me. That saying, however, is just not true. I have seen that God often gives us more than we can handle. Don’t you agree?

The idea that “God will never give you more than you can handle” comes from a misunderstanding of a Bible verse. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” Notice the words I have underlined. This passage is NOT talking about pain and suffering. It is talking about temptation. It is explaining that a Christian cannot be overwhelmed by evil and forced to sin. When temptation comes, God will make a way for you to escape from it so you do not have to sin.

Why does God so often allow “more than we can handle” to come into our lives? In this short article I only have space to introduce a few helpful ideas.

Suffering–going through trials that seem to be more than we can handle–reminds us that our biggest failure as a human race is thinking that we don’t really need God. When things are going well, we don’t recognize our need. The very first sin of the human race was deciding to live independent of our Creator (see Genesis 3:4-5). Suffering is good when it reminds us of how much we need God’s strength and comfort. How wonderful that God’s strength is so much greater than our own!

Paul learned this lesson the hard way. God gave him a very painful trial (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Paul’s suffering was so bad that he begged God three times to remove it. God refused to do that, though, because He had something even better for Paul. That experience brought Paul much closer to Christ. That wonderful closeness to his Savior brought him such great joy and comfort that he said, “… Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

When we humble ourselves before God, when we trust Him and ask for His help, then God steps in and shares His supernatural strength with us. That’s why Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). “For though the Lord is exalted, yet He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar” (Psalm 138:6).

Author Erwin Lutzer reminds us that “God often puts us in situations that are too much for us so that we will learn that no situation is too much for Him.” We will never know how good and powerful God is until we NEED to experience that wonderful goodness and that unlimited power.

We can easily say we love Jesus, but suffering proves whether we really do or not. As Corrie Ten Boom puts it “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” If we are trusting in Christ to pay the full penalty for our sin, then we should be willing to trust that He will never fail us during life’s temporary hardships.

If we have the eternal gift of God’s love, then we should be able to trust Him for the lesser gifts of His help and His presence now. “… If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:31–34).

That is why Paul, who suffered a great deal, could confidently say, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

Rejoice when God gives you more than you can handle. Turn to your Savior who can handle it all. He will enable you to say with King David, “Let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and may You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You” (Psalm 5:11).