The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. During the course of the conversation, my friend mentioned a common theme that many people believe is true but one that I am not so sure is. The idea is this; that God will not give you more than you can handle.
This is a pretty common theme that I hear all the time. I hear it from both church goers and unbelievers as well. It is one of those "universal" themes that people seem to have about God. I think that also in time of great difficulty it is kind of comforting to ones self to think that I can handle this because God would never give me more than I can handle. Is this true?
The concept come from I Corinthians 10:13 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. It certainly seems here that this is indeed a statement right out of scripture that God will never give you more than you can bear. But we need to look a little closer.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. When we start out here we find the people to whom this is written in the same plight of those who use the saying, in a position of troubles. But, what kind of troubles? These are very specific issues with these people. They are temptations that they have fallen to. The temptation to which they have fallen, and so many others is the temptation to sin; or go against God's will. We often find ourselves at our wits end in a situation where we have made a decision and are suffering the consequences thereof. We've all been there and it is nothing uncommon. We have all been disobedient and had to suffer the consequences.
but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able... This is the part people like to take out. We can handle anything because God won't let us get in over our heads. We have to think about this one here a minute. Yes, God is faithful... faithful to whom? God is faithful to His children. If you are not a child of His, God is not obligated to be faithful. This verse, after all, was written to believers. It was for believers. It is believers who will not be tempted above what they are able. Unbelievers will not even see a temptation as a temptation. It will not be something they would even be interested in avoiding. An unbeliever will plow full steam into temptation and revel in it. They might comfort themselves with these words, but they will continue doing the same things.
For the believer, "but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." The question is, what is that escape? For the believer, that escape is the Word. In Mathew 4 we see Jesus being tempted by the devil. With each temptation, Jesus gave example for us on how to escape temptation. It is written, it is written, it is written. And it wasn't just the words, but also the fact that Jesus believed the words and obeyed the words. Obedience to the word of God is the way of escape from temptation that will allow us to bear it. If we are not going to be obedient to the word, we will not be delivered from the temptations.
The truth is this, God will allow us to get in way over our head. He will let things get so bad sometimes that we have no clue what to do. Everything will seem out of control, topsy-turvy, and one thing right after another until our heads are spinning. We know from Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. If you don't love God, God may be using those circumstances to force you into a corner to make a decision. The way of escape that God has for mankind is through His son Jesus Christ. That is the whole point. Without Jesus, we can't bear it. The load of our sins that we have will cause us an eternity of torment beyond anything we can imagine. We don't have to bear that weight though. We can give it to Jesus. Jesus is the way of escape from all the temptations we have fallen into, and obedience to God's ways will keep us from further temptations.
2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
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