God WILL Put More On You than You Can Bear

God WILL Put More On You than You Can Bear

 

“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.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13

In my opinion, there is no greater misquote of God’s word crafted in the hands of satan than “God won’t put more on you than you can bear”.  He uses it to make so many of us feel like failures.  He uses it to cause us to think that there is something wrong with us because we cannot bear the horrors that enter our lives.  But God NEVER said it!  It is not in the Bible. 

It is most often a misquote of 2 Corinthians 10:13, which says that He will not allow us to be TEMPTED beyond what we are able to overcome, and that He will always give us an escape, a way out. But the verse is about temptations – not problems.  With temptations He provides a way out, and with problems, He provides Himself.

Life can be so hard. There are many testimonies of strong people who survived to talk about being raped, lived with incest, painful divorce, murdered children, addictions, and things that God never sends to us.  These things result from sin, and sin has painful consequences.  But God does not tempt us, and God does not lead us to sin.

James 1:13 says “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” Therefore, these things that are thrown at us are not from God, but from our, or someone else’s, own lusts and sin, of which satan is captain. 

Even Jesus himself, God’s beloved son, when bearing the burden of our sins found it so agonizing that Luke 22:44 says, “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” He literally sweat blood under the torment of our sin.  Sin causes pain, but God does not cause sin.

Yet, in Jesus situation as well as your own, God is fully aware of our circumstances and the pain that sin causes.  He reaches out to us through salvation, through His Holy Spirit, to offer us His help.  God never meant for us to go through life alone, and handle life with only our own strength.  Would you send a warrior to battle without a weapon? Neither would God.  We were meant to live with Him, through salvation, which is the gift of belief in His son Jesus. 

Through this gift we live with His Holy Spirit in us, strengthening us, and guiding us.  We are then armed warriors.  This is how life is successfully lived.  This is how we overcome satan and the torments of sin.  1 John 4:4 says “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because HE WHO IS IN YOU is greater than he who is in the world.” He who is in you is the Holy Spirit.  He is the Overcomer. 

The great apostle Paul endured great torment, but overcame because he knew his strength came from God.  2 Corinthians 1:8-10 says “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us”. 

He “despaired even life”, which means “to be utterly at loss, be utterly destitute of measures or resources, to renounce all hope, be in despair”.  Paul was indeed at the end of his rope!  But he understood that though he was too weak to be trusted, God can be trusted, and that God would deliver him.

He went on to write in Romans 8:35-37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall TRIBULATION, or DISTRESS, or PERSECUTINO, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUORS THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED US.“  Paul saw that satan himself would be the failure due to the love of Christ, and that we can conqueror him because of Christ’s love, and salvation.  We can overcome our trials and tribulations, our distress, our persecutions, and all our problems, but only when we have the overcomer in us.

God will use the problems of life to make us stronger, allowing satan to bring to us incredible pain.  Yes, He will use the pain of rape, incest, murder, and all the evils of satan to bring good to you.  The story of Job is the greatest example of this.  God gave Job over to satan, allowing him to kill his children, take his riches, inflict him with sickness, and reduce him to nothing.  But God would not give satan the right to kill him.  But in all of it, God sought to see Job overcome it all.  His one purpose in it all was to allow His Glory to be seen in Job’s life.  Job withstood the test, and God blessed him with even greater than was taken from him.  His legacy lives on as a reminder to us that even though satan does the afflicting, God uses problems and trials to strengthen us, to cause us to lean on Him, to weaken us so we will allow Him to be our strength.

God will put more on you than you can bear alone.  But you don’t have to bear it alone!  If you have not been saved, have not accepted Christ’s sacrifice for sin, stop right now and pray and ask for it.  Ask Him to enter your heart, to be your Savior and your Overcomer.  You need the Overcomer within you to be able to handle the burdens of life.

Trust that God is aware of all your problems.  Nothing escapes His vision.  He watches over His children night and day, never sleeps, and never slumbers.  He sees every evil deed that is done, and hears every hurtful word.  Keep your mind on Him – and not the problem. Trust Him, and find perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).  His children are not alone.  His children ARE overcomers through Him.