Does God give us more than we can handle? Many people believe the Bible promises he won’t. It doesn’t. Scripture says God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), but it never promises that life’s burdens will stay inside the limits of our own strength. In fact, the Bible shows the opposite. God sometimes allows loads far heavier than we can carry because he wants us to stop relying on ourselves and start relying on him.
Is “God Won’t Give You More than You Can Handle” in the Bible?
Recently, I had a conversation that has come up repeatedly throughout my ministry. A woman recounted the struggles in her family, her finances, and her health. Then she concluded, “But you know what the Bible says: God won’t give us more than we can handle.”
Internally, I flagged that comment as I thought about when I should tell her the truth.
After she had finished explaining her current reality, I responded, “You are going through a lot. Those are really difficult struggles. And, actually, they seem like more than you can handle on your own. In fact, the Bible never actually promises that God will not give us more than we can handle. The Bible does say that we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear. But God never promises that we will be able to handle this world’s suffering on our own.”
What the Apostle Paul Said About Carrying More than He Could Handle
Then I asked if she minded if we looked at a few verses from 2 Corinthians. Paul writes about his experience with suffering:
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (1:8–9)
When Paul tries to make sense of the pain, suffering, persecution, and strife he experienced, he says God allowed him to carry loads beyond what he could bear. Why? Well, according to Paul, so he would not trust in himself but in the God who raises the dead.
Why Would God Give Us More than We Can Handle?
You see, Paul’s hope was not in his capacity to endure but in God’s power to bring new life from the crosses we bear. That’s what God did for Jesus. Jesus bore a cross that overwhelmed him to the point of death, but God raised him from the dead. And that same power that raised Jesus is at work in us too (Romans 8:11).
What to Do When Life Is More than You Can Handle
This concept isn’t only something I need to share with my congregation; I need to preach it to myself daily. Right now, I’m in a season of carrying heavy burdens. I’m finishing a degree in mental health counseling. I’m trying to lead a congregation. And I’m hoping to be present and serve the most important people in my life: my wife and my three teenage children. Lately, it’s felt like a burden too heavy to bear. But I believe God has allowed me to be put in this place with these heavy loads so I would no longer trust in my feeble strength, but I would learn to trust in God, who raises the dead.
How about you? Are there burdens too heavy for you to carry? Does it feel like God is giving you more than you can handle?
Maybe it’s time you asked the Holy Spirit to give you the same perspective as Paul: to see your challenges as opportunities to stop trusting in yourself and start trusting in God, your Savior, who raises the dead.
