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More Than We Can Bear

 


 Sometimes you hear people say “God will not give you more than you can bear.”

 Yet that isn’t biblical.

 Yes, God ‘will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able’ (1st Cor. 10:13) yet that doesn’t say that there won’t be times you face adversity more than you can handle.

 Consider 2nd Corinthians 1:8-9. Here Paul says  “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”. The burden on him was more than he had the strength to overcome. To the point, he was ready to be done with life.

 Why would God allow that to happen? Let's read on; “indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” This excess was so that they would not trust in themselves to overcome but learn to full trust in God.

 We might be falling into an arrogant trap in thinking we can handle it all. We can’t. But God can. So, we need to realize we may face things that are too big for us, but they will never be too big for God. 

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