Is That Right?
1 Cor 10:13
I have bad news for some of you, today. I am going to de-bunk one of your truisms.
A truism is a saying that is universally believed to be self-evident or obviously true.
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”
“What goes up must come down”
My favorite
A truism is not scripture, but because some truisms go along with the bible so well, they are placed on the same level as scripture, and sometimes people even believe they are scripture
EX: Money is the root of all evil
Cleanliness is next to godliness
This week I got sick. Tuesday, during my prayers I was thinking about the many things I need to do and things about which I am worried and I prayed, “Well, God, I know you do not put more on us than we can handle.”
Most of you have heard other people say that or you have said it yourself… Right???
Well, immediately, like someone was in the room, I heard, “Is that right? Who told you that?
That is not true.”
At first I thought it was Satan trying to get me to doubt. But as God began to lay out the truth for me, I realized it was from God. So today I am going to share it with you.
“God does not put more on us that we can handle”
Where does that come from? Is it biblical?
It is NOT a bible verse. But is it biblical… does it line up with what the bible teaches?
Well, it does correspond to one bible truth… human frailty.
There is a tipping point for all humans… a point at which things become more than we can handle alone
It is like having a popsicle stick balanced on a pencil and you put a penny on one end to represent you and your resources to handle things.
If there is nothing on the other end… you can handle it
If there is one penny… you are balanced
But if there are two pennies… you tip… more than you can handle
You lose hope or fall into despair
So… yes there is a point at which you cannot handle things
One place the truism is NOT BIBLICAL is at the point of “God will not put more on us…”
This assumes that God is the only one who puts things on us
Troubles, hard times, struggles, challenges
The truth is God does put things on us… to help us, to grow us, to stretch us, to show us our need for Him
BUT… God is NOT the only one putting stuff on us.
SATAN puts stuff on us to crush our faith
our testimony
WE put stuff on ourselves by our poor decisions
Laziness, procrastination, short-cuts, half-done
Comes home to roost
In fact, WE PUT MOST of the stuff on us
OTHER PEOPLE put stuff on us
Laziness, procrastination, short-cuts, half-done
So… even if it were true that, “God will not put more on us than we can handle”… us, other people and Satan WILL put more on us than we can handle
You may ask… What about God? Won’t He help me? Can’t He handle these things?
YES… HE CAN!!! There is NO DOUBT!!
And… SOMETIMES… He does…
We get piled on by life
We cry out to God to deliver us
He comes along side and adds his weight
and we call it a miracle…
Stormy sea… calmed
Blind… healed
But He does not always do miracles
EX: Smoker for 25 years gets lung cancer, God does not heal
So, when we talk about how much we can have to bear we are really talking about the will of God
And when we talk about the will of God we have to divide it into the PERFECT will of God and the PERMISSIVE will of God
Most of the stuff with which we have to deal… is our doing, our free-will and falls under His PERMISSIVE will
It is like this…
God, by His PERFECT will… puts this much on us
God, by His PERMISSIVE will… allows us to put this much on us
So… even if it were true that God will not put more on us (PERFECT WILL) than we can bear…
That does not mean that WE/Satan/life/others will not put more on us that we can bear
OK, so let’s go back to the earlier question: Where does this truism come from?
It is a misapplication of 1 Cor. 10:13 13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
This verse, along with Job 1:12 (And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.) teach us that God has the power to limit Satan’s temptation of us and God has drawn the line in the sand so that we cannot be tempted beyond the tipping point
BUT THAT IS TEMPTATION… the scripture teaches no such truth about the other junk with which we have to deal… NO LIMITS
Is God all powerful and could deliver you from any and every problem of life? YES
Is that God’s M.O.? NO
Will God allow YOU/Satan, others and life to put more on you than you can handle YES
WHY????
Spiritual leverage
God loves you very much. He knows you are going to get piled on. He hates to watch you struggle. He wants very much to see you be victorious. Sooooooo…
There are two ways God can make you able to handle things
One: come alongside, rescue, be a spiritual genie
That is how most people see God, a spiritual genie… that all we have to do is rub the magic bottle (prayer) and give the genie a command (request)
And God, like a good little genie, is obligated to fix our mess, rescue us from our distress, make things all better
God is not a genie. He does not want to be. HE IS GOD
He will not be put on a shelf to wait on our beckon call
He wants to help us deal with our troubles and stuff
But He does not answer the call… He waits on us to answer HIS call
God wants you to be what Paul called, “more than conquerors” more than just able to just get by
God wants us to be VICTORIOUS over all the slings and arrows
But He is not going to take the first way… not often… still miraculous
THEN HOW?? Spiritual leverage!!!
Go back to the earlier illustration about the penny on the popsicle stick:
You on one side and two pennies on other side… defeat
Now imagine that you hot glued another stick onto your end and moved your penny out… can you handle 2 pennies? YES 5 even
That second stick symbolizes GROWTH, spiritual growth, getting stronger in your faith, getting stronger in your walk… MORE, MORE , MORE
See how much stronger you are, how you are a conqueror???
Now you can handle much more than two pennies
But eventually, you keep getting piled on… and … tipped!!!
Now, add another stick
And let Satan pile it on, let others pile it on… now you can handle 14 pennies
But you’re still getting piled on… you will tip!!
Add another stick… and another… and another
What do you get??? Able to overcome whatever the world and Satan pile on
That is why Job was able to stand up to so much…
Loss of children
Loss of land
Loss of money
Loss of respect
Loss of God’s blessings
But still he did not give up or lose heart… WHY????
He had about 25 sticks… he was so close to God
Will God put more on you than you can bear??
YES… WHY
To get you to MOVE OVER… grow… increase… add sticks… gain leverage
Let me end with this example:
PETER… a disciple, you would think he would have a long stick, be strong
Jesus knew he wasn’t. He told him in Luke 22:31 that Satan was about to pile on him, to push him past the tipping point.
And Satan did and Peter tipped… denied Jesus 3 times
But what happened after that???
Empty tomb
Live Jesus
Holy Spirit
3000 saved
Peter added about 50 sticks of faith and growth
And in the end, because there was nothing the Jews or Romans could do to Peter… nothing they could pile on… which would dissuade him from his faith and from proclaiming the gospel… they had to kill him. But even in death he was more than a conqueror because he had the spiritual leverage to overcome whatever they brought.
What about YOU???
