By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I have a confession to make. There is a common saying among Christians that drives me crazy. Let’s call it a Christian pet peeve. It’s a phrase that has been taught all over the world, but it’s not what God says in His Word. If I’m honest, I have to force myself to be quiet when I hear someone say it because I believe this phrase messes with people’s minds more than any other. I know it did for me.
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So, what is it? It’s the phrase people say when they are dealing with great hardship. “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

After I was diagnosed with my third chronic illness, several well-meaning people told me, “Don’t worry. It will be okay. God obviously knows you can handle this because He won’t give you more than you can deal with.” Admittedly, after the third person said this to me I wanted to scream, “But it is too much! I can’t do this! Living with three chronic illnesses is too much for me to handle!” And that’s the moment God said, “Exactly!”

Let’s look at the saying from a different perspective. God won’t give you more than you can handle. Do you see it? That phrase makes it all about you, what you can do in your strength and capability. Nowhere in God’s Word does it say we’re supposed to tackle this life and its many problems by ourselves. The Bible continually reminds us to go to God. One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 91, which says when we go to God and make Him our refuge and fortress He will deliver us.

So why do people think this phrase is in the Bible? It actually comes from 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says, “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.” If you look at the original Greek word used here, temptation can mean two things. The first is a temptation, that area of sin with which one tends to struggle. An example of this is when Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days and nights. Towards the end, Satan came to Jesus and tried to tempt Him to eat. The other thing which temptation refers to are tests, like the everyday aggravations of life. For example, when you need to be somewhere at a specific time and you get stuck behind every slowpoke in the county on your drive. How do you respond? That’s what this verse is talking about.

Interestingly enough, Paul, the author of 1 Corinthians, went on to say in a different letter to the church of Corinth (2 Corinthians), “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life,” (2 Corinthians 1:8).

I know, everyone’s thinking, “Well, this is depressing! I’m going to face problems that are too much for me to handle. Where’s the hope in that?” Paul gives us the answer later in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where he says:

We’re supposed to turn to God when we face problems! As believers, God has made His power available to us. We access this power when we connect with Him. Like plugging an electronic into an outlet, God’s power is always available to us, but we have to pray. Prayer is one of those topics that make us uncomfortable. We don’t understand how it works, so we tend to shy away from it, not to mention the time and effort it requires. Yet like a curling iron or microwave, if it’s not connected to the power source, it won’t work.

We are going to face more than we can handle in this life. Bodies don’t work the way they’re supposed to; marriages fall apart; jobs are terminated. This world is broken, and if we are looking to ourselves or anyone else to help us handle the problems we encounter, we will fail and fall flat on our faces every time. But there is hope for those who have a relationship with God! He makes His life-giving power available to us. When we cry out to Him and rely on Him when life overwhelms us and becomes too much, God does more than we can imagine (Eph. 3:20-21).

Are you connected to the power source?
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“For You light my lamp; The Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run upon a troop; And by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.” ~ Psalm 18:28-30   

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Have you ever relied on a flashlight to light the path of where you need to go? Some of my fondest childhood memories involve camping with my dad. We have several places where we enjoy pitching a tent, but our favorite is Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. Not only is it clean, well-kept, and comes with nice bathhouses, but it’s so quiet and peaceful the wildlife can usually be seen wandering through the campground. We’ve seen everything from foxes and deer to wild ponies. One of our of our more memorable excursions was ten years ago.

I went to the bathhouse one evening, with the plan to sit by the campfire with my dad and our friend once I returned. It was so dark I could only see a couple of steps ahead of me using the flashlight. About two-thirds of the way back to our campsite, I heard my dad quietly say, “Psst! Erin, stop!”

After immediately stopping, my dad continued, “Don’t shine the light towards us. I want you to take the path to the tent. As quietly as you can, get in the tent, and stay there.”

Like anyone who’s ever spent time in nature, you learn to immediately obey when given an order, even when you don’t understand why. Although it wasn’t my plan to spend the rest of the evening in the tent, I followed my dad’s instructions. Safely ensconced inside, I used my flashlight to read, all the while wondering why I was forced to go down a different path. Two hours later, I got my answer when my dad and our friend finally climbed into the tent. Apparently, right after I went to the bathhouse, a skunk decided he liked the campfire and wanted to explore. For two hours, the skunk walked between the chairs, around the picnic table, and circled the fire while my dad and friend barely moved a muscle. As the campfire died down, their little friend decided he had enough and slowly meandered away from our camp. Needless to say, it took both guys awhile to unwind and relax before they could sleep!
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I’ve been thinking about this the past few weeks. As most of you know, I’m a planner by nature. I like to know what’s coming. When God tells me to do something, I can imagine what a mile down the proverbial road looks like, but that’s not how God works. True faith is trusting God for the next step of the journey. It’s admitting that we don’t know the future and surrendering our plans to God. As much as I’d like to know what’s coming, God won’t allow that to happen because then I’m relying on myself rather than on Him. That’s why faith is like a flashlight. Rather than lighting up the whole path showing us what’s coming, faith is a daily reliance on God to help us with each step of our journey. Sometimes, God is gracious and allows us to get a glimpse of the bigger picture, but even then, we don’t get to see everything. It’s why it’s so important to spend time with God daily, both in prayer and studying His Word, so that we have our flashlights of faith showing us the next step to take.

All of us are walking down paths, holding our trusty flashlight of faith, illuminating the next step. However, for some of us, the battery is weak and starting to flicker. That’s our sign we need to plug back into the power source – God! For others, we’re trying to see the whole path and are so focused on our end goal we’re about to trip because we’re not paying attention to what’s right in front of us. There are countless verses in the Bible about daily going to God. This is why. Yes, dream for the future and make plans, but we don’t want to hold so tightly to them that we take the wrong path.  

God has a plan for each of our lives. Don’t be so set on the destination that you miss where He wants to take you. Go to God daily, grab your trusty flashlight of faith, and take the next step!
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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6