Watch the vid by my main man, Steve McVey “Christian Religion Lie #29: “God won’t put more on you than you can bare”" and my comments follow…
This is a VERY commonly held belief.
You hear it preached from pulpits… repeated by fellow Christians trying to encourage you… but it’s simply not true.
There is nothing in the Bible that says this… So where did it come from?
A misreading of scripture…
It’s found nowhere in scripture because it’s actually a twisting of the following verse from 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NASB, emphasis mine):
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
You see, the verse in question is actually referring to temptations, NOT the weight of circumstances, religious duty, afflictions, trials and tribulations. God won’t allow you to be TEMPTED beyond what you’re able to resist… but He sure as heck will allow more things to happen to you than you can bare.
In fact, many times you see people in the Bible being put in serious conditions beyond what they can bare. Jesus wept… sweated blood because He was so distressed over his inevitable sacrifice… and then was tortured until He died.
God WILL put more on you than you can bare!
You may think this isn’t true. But it is, God will put more on you than you can handle. Why? Because He doesn’t want you to rely on your own strength, your own works, your own mettle to live the Christian life. He wants to do it for you, He wants to be your strength, your source of life, so sometimes He (lovingly) has to allow you to be broken by your circumstances.
Read this passage from 2 Corinthians 1: 8-11 (The Message, Emphasis mine):
8-11: “We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.”
Paul said “He didn’t think he was going to make it”… other translations say “we despaired even of life” (NASB)… “we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life [itself].” (Amplified Bible)… any way you look at it, they were under more pressure than they could humanly take.
And what was the purpose of this? Why did God ALLOW them to be crushed?
So they would turn to God and trust in Him as their strength… and KNOW that He is the only one who can successfully live the “Christian Life”.
So Like Steve says, this one is a LIE, God WILL put more on you than you can bare because He wants you to not trust in your own strength to live this life, but to live it out of His indwelling spirit.
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5 Things I’m Grateful For Today:
- Got my business name registered
- Got the “lab” process started.
- Got my car registered
- Almost finished another book
- It’s raining but I’m still happy
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yvonne Cox 06.23.08 at 8:03 pm
The scripture is often misquoted I Corith. 10:13, II Corith. 1:8-11. Have you found anywhere in Gods word that quotes. I will put no more on you than you can bare.
calebo 06.24.08 at 2:34 am
Hello Yvonne,
That’s the point of this blog post.
There is no place in scripture that says “I will put no more on you than you can bare”.
With Love
Caleb