Can You Handle It?

Alba 8-3-2025

CAN YOU HANDLE IT?

I Corinthians 10:12-13

There was a U.S. ship captain who had a regular route from California to Columbia. He had delivered his shipment to Columbia and was about to embark for the U.S. when he was approached by the drug cartel. They wanted him to carry a small shipment of drugs to the United States, where their people would secretly unload them.

They offered him $500,000 to do it. He said, “No.” On his next three trips to Columbia the cartel again approached him, offering him more and more money. $1 million, $1.5 million, and then $2 million. At being offered $2 million, he told them “Maybe.”

He called the DEA in the U.S. and a sting operation was set up. The drug dealers were arrested. And One of the DEA agents asked the captain, “Why did you wait until the offers got to $2 million before you called us? The captain replied, “Because they were getting close to my price!”

When temptation comes your way, are you strong? Or are you weak? Can you handle it? Sadly, most of us find that we are not as strong as we thought or would like to be. In fact that is the reason that Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That includes each and every one of us. No one is excluded.

Yet I Corinthians 10:13 says that God, “will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.” So, what's up with that? If we are able, why do we sin? Well here's the answer. Without relying on God, we won't be able. We will sin. We need His help. When Jesus was tempted, He relied on what scripture said. In each of the times that the devil thought he could trap Jesus with some sin, Jesus said, “It is written.” And then He quoted from scripture a truth that destroyed the devil's attempt to catch Him doing something that was wrong.

But what about this verse thirteen? It is often quoted, and misquoted to mean something different than it says. How many times have you heard someone say to a person who is struggling with a major problem, “God won't give you any more than you can handle.” You may have said it yourself. But do you know what? That is not true!

The truth is, there may be many things that come into your life that are overwhelming and difficult to handle. Just last Sunday, we heard of problems and tragedies that have caused people despair, and even made them question God. Their thinking is that if God is in control, we shouldn't have any problems. Now I have to tell you, God has never promised that. Never. You know what Jesus said to those closest to Him, “In the world you will have tribulation.” But then He did add, “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” That last part gives us hope. But it does not change the first part. We will have trouble in this world. Sometimes, overwhelming trouble.

Even the apostle Paul expressed trouble that was beyond his personal ability to handle. In II Corinthians 1:8-9 he says, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble (the footnote calls it “tribulation”) which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.” Have you felt that way sometimes? But he continues, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” His trouble was above his strength and he could not trust in himself to get through it. He had to trust God.

Actually, II Timothy 3:12 says, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” And the apostle Paul is example number one of that truth. Just before that verse, Paul told Timothy, “But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.”

What he is talking about is the time people threw stones at him so hard they thought they had killed him. He also had been beaten severely and thrown into prison for nothing more than preaching about Jesus. Notice that Paul did not say, “The Lord delivered me from them all.” No. He said, “out of them all the Lord delivered me.” In other words, Paul did experience a lot of trouble. Yet he is able to say, as he continued to trust God, there was a time of deliverance.

He came out with scars. But he saw the hand of God at work, even when he experienced trouble. In a post called, “God Will Give You More Than You Can Handle,” Mitch Chase writes: “Christians can make the strangest claims when comforting those who are suffering. What do you say to someone whose life is falling apart? If you have but a few precious minutes with a person who’s lost a job, home, spouse, child, or all sense of purpose, what comfort do you give? We might turn to conventional wisdom instead of Scripture and end up saying something like, ‘Don’t worry, this wouldn’t happen in your life if God didn’t think you could bear it.’ The sufferer may object, head shaking and hands up. But you insist, ‘Look, seriously, the Bible promises God won’t ever give you more than you can handle.’ There it is—conventional wisdom masquerading as biblical truth. You’ve promised what the Bible never does.”