Is it true that God will never give us more than we can handle?

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone recite what seems to be a maxim of American Christianity: “God will never give us more than we can handle.”

Have you ever heard someone say that? I call this a maxim of American Christianity because it’s filled with that uniquely American idealism that holds that if we think carefully enough and work hard enough and keep at it long enough . . . why, we can do just about anything, accomplish any task, reach any goal. When you apply this kind of idealism to religious experience, to life in a world filled with weighty hardship and painful difficulty, it comes out like this: “God will never give us more than we can handle.”

An untrue statement

I cringe whenever I hear someone utter this perhaps well-intentioned yet unhappy platitude because hidden inside the phrase is a kernel of work-righteousness—an undue confidence in self and an unwarranted emphasis on one’s own abilities and efforts. But even more than that, this maxim, this Americanism, is completely untrue and doesn’t tell the truth about you and me and our lives. You see, we can’t always manage our own troubles and tragedies. We can’t always put an end to them or heal them or undo them. We can’t always survive the loss or find the cure or fill the emptiness or dry the tear.

Even more deceptive, however, is that this maxim doesn’t tell the truth about God. To begin with, we “give thanks to the LORD, for he is good” (Psalm 107:1). This is the truth about God. The apostle John states that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). This is also the truth about God. In his goodness and love, God “does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone” (Lamentations 3:33). This is a great truth about God. The true cause and source of evil and suffering in this world is sin; we have troubles and face ruin of every kind because of our own sin and the sin of others—including that of our enemy Satan.

It is also true that God, in order to accomplish his saving purpose in our hearts and lives, does allow trouble to come into the lives of his children; he does permit tragedy and terror to strike; he does allow suffering to oppress—even that which is far more, far deeper, far heavier than we could handle on our own.

Biblical examples

Consider a poignant example found in the Old Testament account of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-37).

Elisha had made the acquaintance of a wealthy woman who lived with her husband in the city of Shunem. This woman was a believer who worshiped the Lord and honored the Lord’s prophet. She opened her home to Elisha, fed him, and built a room onto her house just for Elisha to use. Elisha wanted to repay the woman for all her kindness, and when reminded that she was childless and that her husband was already an old man, he promised her God’s gift of a son. Just as Elisha said, she had a son, and he grew into a little boy—no doubt covered with her kisses and clothed with her love. Then one day, the little boy went out to watch his father tend the fields when he suddenly grabbed his head in pain and was carried back to his mother’s lap. He lay there the whole morning, and then he died.

Have you known grief? Have you shed tears? Have you felt empty? There is no grief, no terror, no hopelessness and helplessness like that which stems from the death of your own child. The woman knew that she would die one day and she expected her elderly husband to die probably sooner rather than later . . . but her son? her treasure? her life and hope? His death was more than she could handle. So she rushed to Elisha with a focus that came from her pain. And when she found the prophet, all she could do was fall at his feet and cry out in her bitter distress: “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you: ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” (v. 28).

Our hope for victory over trouble and hardship is found only in Jesus Christ.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul told the people about the severe hardships God allowed him and Timothy to suffer while preaching and teaching in the province of Asia. It was so bad, so horrible, so pressure-filled that Paul said it was “far beyond our ability to endure.” In other words, these troubles were more than what the apostle Paul could handle. In fact, Paul recalled, “We despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8,9).

But then Paul went on to give the answer—the answer to the extreme suffering he experienced in his own life; the answer to the great suffering God allowed to come into the Shunammite’s life; the answer to the hardship and trial God allowed in the prophet Elisha’s life; the answer to all of the disasters, tragedies, calamities, catastrophes, accidents, crushing blows, and the sin-and-Satan-born troubles we cannot handle in our own lives. Paul declared in victorious faith, “This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (v. 9).

Our true hope

This is the lesson the Holy Spirit wants us to learn from the account of Elisha and the raising of the Shunammite’s son. This is the lesson the apostle Paul learned during his own life of hardship and trouble. Don’t hope in yourself. Don’t find strength in your weak arms or weak heart. Don’t rely on yourself in times of trouble and suffering. Put all your hope and every ounce of confidence in the God who has the power, the desire, and the love to raise the dead.

Scripture certainly tells us to expect hardship and trouble in this ruined world, but it does not promise that we will be able to handle that trouble. There is no such promise. Rather, the Bible always directs us to what God promises to do for us, how he promises to fight for us, defend us, sustain and rescue us in every hardship and in all trouble through Christ Jesus. In simple, pointed language, the Savior himself says to us: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Our hope for victory over trouble and hardship is found only in Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead as proof of our forgiveness and the guarantee of our permanent, trouble-free life in heaven.

Author: Jeffrey Schone
Volume 111, Number 08
Issue: August 2024

Our true refuge

In his book Deep as the Sea, Timothy Bourman reminds us where our true refuge lies:

“When even the mountains are falling into the heart of the sea, we have a refuge that is more impervious than the mountains themselves. Who or what might that be? The psalmist tells us, ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.’ I love that verse because it is honest. It is honest about the fact that we will face trouble, big trouble. It is also honest about God. God is our refuge” (p. 29).

Deep as the Sea is available from Northwestern Publishing House, nph.net.