Thursday, January 16, 2014

When God Gives You More Than You Can Handle

Alright, today's subject is... a little touchy. Mostly because when we are going through an especially difficult time, people love to throw faith-based statements at us to give us some kind of comfort. The trouble is, sometimes they aren't true statements. And sometimes they leave us feeling hopeless; because when things are really, really difficult, it can be hard to understand why it's happening to you.

Right now I want to tackle one of the biggest phrases people throw around; "God never gives you more than you can handle." A phrase that I've never in my life found to be true.



This is one phrase I've never figured out. How it could possibly give somebody comfort? If they are feeling hurt, vulnerable and weak, why would you tell them, "Well obviously you can handle it, toughen up. God knows what He's doing." You might as well stab them in the heart and tell them to get over it. Sometimes in life, we are given way more than we feel we can take. Burden upon burden. Heartbreak after heartbreak. Challenge beyond challenge. And while you say "God never gives you more than you can handle," you're wrong.

He doesn't necessarily give these burdens to us, (I don't personally believe that He is responsible for the bad things in our life.) But bad things do happen in our lives. Things that we can't control, things that will break our hearts. That's kind of the point. When you are lower than low, when you have no more strength to fight and no more faith to hope- He's there. He's there to help you, he's there to take some of the pain, to give your heart encouragement and comfort. He's there to show us, that being human means we can't do everything on our own. We need Him.

A year ago, I was struggling daily with the feeling of hopelessness and worthlessness due to my infertility. For a very long time I wavered between blaming Him or not believing in Him. How could such a wonderful God let such bad things happen to good people? (I cringe just typing that now!) I was very lucky (or maybe it wasn't luck at all, but God) to have some really great friends come into my life and talk about their love for God. They talked about how they rely on Him whenever things got to be too much for their fragile human hearts to handle. They talked about how their God is a God of hope and happiness. And they softened my heart enough to seek Him out for myself because I was tired of living everyday in a state of repressed sadness.


When we learn to accept that we have weaknesses and that we can't take it all, do it all, handle it all; we open our hearts and souls to God. That's what he wants for us. He wants us to believe in Him, trust in Him and love Him. When everything is going wrong and we don't know what to do- He is there for us- all we have to do is look. He never wants to see hurt in our hearts or pain in our lives. He only wants to take all of that from us and help us to rejoice in Him.

This is one of the biggest life-changing lessons I've learned in the last year. I've learned that if I truly look to him for comfort, He does heal our hurt. Not completely, not forever. But He gives us enough strength to get through and rejoice in His presence. He gives us hope and purpose. I'm still trying to find my purpose if it's not to be a mother one day, but I know that I will find it. And on days when I'm feeling extra crumby, (I've had a lot of those the last week or so,) I remind myself to look towards Him for comfort. Because there is no greater love than that of our God.

I hope this message finds you well today, and that if you are dealing with any kind of hurt in your life right now, that you find this as a reminder that it's okay to ask Him to help. He wants to help us. There is nothing more precious to Him than us.

xoxo, Laura

13 comments:

  1. You know what ? I've never known until now that I also hated hearing people say that. Of course God gives us things we can't handle. If we could handle everything we wouldn't need Him at all. We wouldn't need other people, and we could live as an island. What is the point in that ?

    The biggest downside of moving countries is that we have had to rely on other people. I mean, really rely on them. Get lifts, have others take up their time for us, drive 400km for us, and even open up their home to us. My husband and I hate this. We like being self-sufficient and looking after ourselves. This has been an incredible learning experience for us, that sometimes, when we open ourselves up to being helped by others, we get to experience people's kindness. We get to see how loved we are, how lucky we are, and how looked after we are. All this from the horrible month of being "homeless". This is a small example, and not like your struggle, but it's current. It's weird but I am quite excited for the struggles God brings me (although, as you said, God is not the source of *every* bad thing in your life) because if this rubbish homelessness shows us such great parts in our friends, imagine what greatness we can learn from God. There are parts that we only learn about God (and ourselves, and our friends) through the bad times. I truly believe that.

    You are beautiful. Thank you for your words.

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    1. Thank you, Caylee <3
      You bring up another point that I hadnt even thought of! The fact that we can't handle everything on our own forces us to make humanly connections with our peers and community. Being an island would be such a sad, sad, lonely life. It's fanstic that you guys have had some great friends show their true character and help you out along the way. I bet you can't wait until Feb 1st though! Thanks for always reading, girl. I hope your move comes soon and goes well.

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  2. Hi Laura,
    Having heard the line you write about many times in my Christian walk, I wonder if you would consider the connection between the "line" and what you write about God, himself. I believe that "God will never give you more than you can handle comes from this verse in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:13
    New International Version (NIV)
    13 No temptation[a] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[b] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[c] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

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  3. Sorry, after I pasted, I couldn't keep typing.

    I think, unwittingly, you got to the very heart of the verse. We can take whatever circumstance comes our way if we lean on the God who is the God of comfort - in our times of deepest distress.

    People throw out words and partial verses all the time, but that is not enough. It causes confusion. That's why God gave us the Good Book - so that we might know him fully. Bless you on your journey.

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    1. That's really interesting to read the root/origin of the phrase. I didn't know that's where it specifically came from. Only that people use it often in a way that is, yes, confusing and seems like a half-hearted attempt to tell someone to suck it up. I really like the "He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it," part of the verse. Unfortunately, people rarely throw out the whole thing, just portions of it. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. I have a sign in my house that says, "God doesn't give us more than we can handle. He helps us handle what we have been given." You are right, God doesn't give us everything. He can't give us sickness, infertility, diseases, death, heartache, etc. because the Bible says that He is perfect and there is no evil in Him. It also says that only good and perfect gifts come from Him...but I love the fact that He is always there for us. Will never forsake us and that He is always available to help us get through whatever this fallen world has for us. He is so loving! Thank you for sharing. Your pictures are gorgeous! Have a great weekend girlie :)

    waitingforbabybird.com

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    1. I saw that quote floating around on Pinterested recently! I really love how you say "He is perfect, there is no evil in Him. He only gives us gifts, not sickness, etc." Because so many people absentmindedly claim that God gives them trials to help them grow. But I don't believe that either. I think he does help us grow, of course, but bad things aren't sent to us from him or meant to teach us a lesson, they are just part of life and he helps us through them <3 Thank you for the compliment! I hope you're doing well and have a great weekend as well!

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  5. I love this post! Thank you! I feel like I am working on using His healing power and I am grateful to read about your healing and journey.

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    1. I'm so glad you found my blog and enjoyed this post, Jennifer! I hope He finds you well and gives you the biggest hug for me on your journey towards healing <3

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  6. Love you girl! XOXO. I'm sorry you're struggling right now. I understand it so well.

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    1. Thanks Jessah, love you too! I hope things have gotton a little better for you guys over the weekend!

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  7. love to see bloggers begin to speak open about their beliefs. And I love to feel in your words that it is more than just religious way to look at it but that people can feel the love of our heavenly daddy through the love that you have for him. Thank you so much for being honest and that it's not about having a easy peasy life when we decide to follow Jesus, but that we're no longer facing all that by ourselves but with HIM by our side. One phrase I really love is "Stop telling your God how big your problem is and start telling your problem how big your God is" and what I can say for sure, that he can turn crying into laughter and that when you trust in him you never gonna fall deeper than in to his hands. I'm so happy for you that you made this experience! I hope that God will give you more than you can bear - but of his love and grace :)

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    1. Thanks, Judith. I love that quote, I may have to work on framing that one somewhere in my house! Thank you so much for reading and for your kind words <3 I hope you have a beautiful day!

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Hello gorgeous, I love reading your comments!