Is It True that God Will Never Give You More than You Can Handle?

I was listening to the testimony of a new, young, talented Christian artist when this statement caught my attention. In reference to God she said, we know that He loves us and He’s never going to let us fall. Really? Tell that to Israel, David, Samson or the Apostles Paul or Peter. No one fell farther, faster than Peter – I don’t know what you’re saying; with an oath, I don’t know the man; then he began to curse and swear, I don’t know the man! (Matthew 26:70, 72, 74). If that’s not falling I don’t know what is. That’s not just falling, that’s hitting bottom!

Certainly God loves us, that much is true, but His love does not preclude our falling into either problems (Paul) or sinful behavior (Peter). In fact you could make the case that it is precisely because He loves us that He doesn’t stop us from falling. His love gives us freedom and freedom can be a dangerous thing.

The real problem here is that too much of what we believe comes from the wrong sources. Too many Christians today live in a place of spiritual shallowness that is similar to the pop-culture of our broader society.  We have distilled our beliefs down to sound bites; to spiritual clichés: God is my co-pilot; God will not give you more than you can handle; Do your best, trust God with the rest. As writer Eric Geiger points out in an article titled Why God is Not Your Co-Pilot, these statements are simply not true. They may sound nice and on occasion offer us a modicum of comfort but they are often contrary to the truth of scripture. You can read his full article here.

Let’s face reality, we’ve arrived at this place because of our own spiritual laziness. It’s easier to tell someone God will never give you more than you can handle, then to spend the time with them digging into scripture to find out 1) if it’s true and 2) why God has brought them to the breaking point. Again, read the article for a good answer. You may not agree with everything the writer says but it should make you think in a different way about what you believe and why you believe it.

Whenever we distill our beliefs down to sound bites we are in danger of losing out on the richness of our faith. By their very nature sound bites have to leave out more than they include. Do you really want to do that with your faith? Do you want to risk knowing more about God and how He works in our world and our lives just so you can say less?

Here’s the strange part. Somewhere in our minds we know that these statements are not entirely sufficient answers – but we use them anyway. It’s just easier. Or maybe it’s because we don’t know the right answers and we don’t want to admit it. The next time someone pours their heart out to you because they don’t understand what God is doing in their life, resist the temptation to throw them a spiritual one-liner. Spend some time with them searching the Word of God for the real answers to their problems.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Guilty or Innocent?

We all struggle to think the best of other people. There’s something inside of us that more often believes the negative things that we hear about someone before we believe the positive. In other words we find it difficult to give people the benefit of the doubt. A good definition of the benefit of the doubt is: to believe something good or positive about someone, rather than something bad or negative, when you have the possibility of doing either.

In the legal arena this means that if a jury has evidence that casts a doubt on the guilt of a defendant they must reach a verdict of “not guilty.” They must believe the good rather than the negative. We tend, however, to judge people’s motives and their actions often before we have all of the facts. When we do, we are prone to judge them guilty.

The Apostle addressed this issue in 1 Corinthians 13:7 when he said that love believes all things. The idea is that when we love somebody we trust him fully; we expect nothing but good things from him even though appearances be against him (NIC pg 307 emphasis mine). If we are operating in love as the New Testament teaches (Ephesians 5:1-2) then we will give others the benefit of the doubt. We will believe the good about them – even when there are things that appear negative.

What is it that causes us to think the worst about people? Past experiences, familiarity with a person’s character, not knowing as much about the person as we think we do and our own inclinations all play into our decisions. However, the tendency to not extend to others the benefit of the doubt comes down to a lack of loving others as Christ loves them. It comes from a mind that has not been transformed into thinking like Christ (Romans 12:2).

When Christ was asked to name the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36) He not only named the greatest commandment (love the Lord your God) but He also gave us the second greatest commandment – You shall love your neighbor as yourself (verse 39).  That is, we are to love each other the same way that we love ourselves. That means that we are to treat other people the same way that we treat ourselves. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t give themselves the benefit of the doubt. If we can think the good about ourselves even though there may be things that appear to be against us, then we have the obligation to think the good about others even though appearances be against him. Giving others the benefit of the doubt goes against our natural inclinations. It is not easy, but it is the right thing to do.

The next time you are tempted to judge another person before you have all of the facts, remember that love believes all things – it believes the best about another person even when appearances say otherwise.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve