God Doesn’t Give You Anything You Can’t Handle… Or Does He?

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by an old friend from high school. She told me that when her father died years ago, I had told her “God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle”. It encouraged her during that time, and helped her to cope. My first reaction to reading this was, “Wow I’m so glad something I said helped!”

But I sat and thought about it for a minute. Does God give us anything we can’t handle? I can remember many times in my life where I have been in situations that I couldn’t handle. My parent’s divorce, a break up, the loss of a friend. I survived somehow, even though I shouldn’t have been able to. Am I just stronger and able to handle more than I think?

No.

God did not make us to be completely self-sufficient, no matter what self-help books and inspiring quotes from people you’ve never heard of may imply. God made us so that we CAN’T do it alone. If we could handle everything that came our way without the help of anyone else, we would be living very lonely lives. God wants to be our ultimate help; in fact, he made us so that he would be. The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes sums this up nicely:

“The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to the truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.” (GS 19)

God has made us to be reliant on him. He knows that we are limited, and that we have weaknesses. He knows that our strength is limited. Fortunately, his strength is not. And the good news is that God wants to be that strength for us! If we could do everything ourselves, we probably would not cry out to God in our times of need. God wants to be in relationship with us, and wants us to come to him for everything. Humans are not designed to be able to handle things like divorce, death, or loss on our own, but we are designed to be able to go to God and receive his mercy and love. When we go to God with all of our burdens (and joys!) he gives us his supernatural peace that enables us to live life and live it to the fullest.

God does give us things we can’t handle, but He doesn’t give anything that He and I can’t handle together.

Originally Posted on Ablaze Ministries’ blog on 9/30/2013