Here is a note I sent to a friend who was struggling with the burdens of life:
I'd like to share something with you that I've learned in hopes that it will encourage you. Although we hear the phrase often, there is no where in the Bible that says God will never give you more than you can handle-- as in burdens, calamities, feeling weighed down by life, etc. When my husband was dying of leukemia 7 yrs ago, people kept telling me this statement but I realized I didn't find it comforting. Rather it made me feel like somehow I wasn't trusting God enough or I just wasn't measuring up in my faith because it did indeed feel like I had more than I could possibly bear. So in hopes I could understand this promise of God better, I went looking for it and I discovered you won't find that promise anywhere in the Bible. But don't despair. Read on. :)
(There IS a verse that says God will not allow us to be TEMPTED beyond what we can bear. 1 Corinth 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." It sounds like that is speaking of something very different than what you are going through.)
I found it comforting and perhaps you will too, that even the great apostle Paul said he'd been given more than he could handle: "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." (2 Corinth 1:8-9)
There you have the very reason that God will INDEED allow more to come into your life than you can handle. Because that is what it takes to drive most of us to our knees & admit our need for God. And that is where he meets us. When we come to the end of ourselves and admit we simply can not do it alone, & that we desperately need Him.
When life hands you more than you can handle, let me encourage you to turn to the ONE who can handle it ALL. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
