A little food for thought today…
We often hear “God will not give you more than you can handle”. We tend to say this as to encourage ourselves and others when we go through hard times.
Then, I read where this is actually nowhere in the Bible, and that we are given more than we can handle so that we need to go to God to help us through these hard times; to develop our trust and dependence on him.
Then, today, I read in a book…
“Nothing touches me without going through God’s permission first. Satan cannot touch us without God’s divine permission. If we think we can’t bear something, and we are facing it anyway, it’s because God knows us better than we know ourselves. He will not give us more than we can stand. Then the author referenced 1 Corinthians 10:13.
So, I look up 1 COR 10:13, NIV version…
“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.”
I then looked up the KJV version because I wanted to see if they used a different word than ‘temptation’. Nope, same word.
So, here’s my thought that’s rolling around in my mind….
Is temptation the same as the hard things of life (health issues, relationship issues, etc.). I can see how maybe the way we respond to the hard things in life are temptations (the temptation to respond with anger, disgust, sadness, bitterness, fear, etc.), or are they two separate things?
It’s clear that God promises to not allow temptations beyond what we can bear. And it’s clear that He will be with us through both the trials, and temptations.
We can confirm both of these in scripture.
But, can we confidently confirm through scripture that He will never give us more hard times that we can bear?