Summary: An unusual take on the truism: God will not put more on us than we can handle.

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???