God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down, and focus on Jesus.

Pray and ask Him to open your eyes to see as you read the Scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

1 Corinthians 1:8-10 (CSB): “8 We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again.” 

1 Corinthians 4:8-12 (CSB): “8 We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; 9 we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life in you.”

Going Deeper: 

You have probably heard the saying, “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” In fact, we hear it so much that you might think it’s a direct quote from the Bible itself! But like its often-quoted cousin, “God helps those who help themselves,” this not-quite-Bible-verse isn’t found anywhere in Scripture.

Instead, we see all sorts of occasions in Scripture where God’s people come to the end of their own strength. In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about being “completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength.” Prophets like David and Elijah cried out to God in despair. It’s unlikely Moses could have handled parting the Red Sea by his own strength, and Gideon and his 300 soldiers would not have been able to handle defeating an entire army on their own.

There may have been times in your life, during this pandemic or otherwise, that you have come to the end of your own strength. You may have felt “completely overwhelmed,” or been driven to despair. You may have come face to face with your weakness and limitations.

And yet, there is good news for us. God did not promise to never give us more than we can handle, but He did promise to be with us. He also promised that “He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8). When we face trials and temptations, He promised “He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). He promised that He “is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

There will be times in this life that we just can’t handle. We are weak, regular people—jars of clay and made of dust. And yet, we aren’t asked to handle it all. We are only asked to cling tightly to Jesus, and he will bring us through it. He is able to strengthen us, sustain us, and make us stand. He is able to prevent us from stumbling and give us everything we need. Only in Jesus can we say, “We are afflicted in every way but not crushed.”

It can actually be a beautiful act of God’s mercy when we come to the end of our own strength. As Jesus has told us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Being overwhelmed is an opportunity to see Jesus at work, and to give glory and credit to Him rather than ourselves. “More than you can handle” can be an opportunity for Christ’s power to reside in you rather than your own power. Our weakness can be a powerful reminder, “so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.”

Pray:

Lord, thank you for your strength. Please fulfill your promise to strengthen me to the end. Please open my eyes to see the way out of this trial, the way that you have provided. Thank you for sustaining me by your grace this far. Thank you even for giving me more than I can handle, that I might cling to you more tightly and know you more deeply. Thank you for my own weakness, that you display your amazing power and beauty through my weakness. Please use my weakness to show your life to the world. Please give me the faith and hope to believe that you will sustain me through it all until the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you today?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?