God Will Never Give Us More Than We Can Handle (Wants Us to Fully Rely On Him)

Key Elements

In 2 Corinthians 12:6-10, the Apostle Paul wrote about a “thorn in the flesh” given to him by God that served the purpose of keeping him humble and dependent on God throughout the entirety of his life and ministry. As a result, Paul knew his boasting only came through the his dependence on God and not anything he accomplished on his own.

Main Idea: God often allows more than we can handle and brings us to the end of our own strength to teach us to fully rely on Him rather than ourselves or others, and because of this we learn to trust in His strength rather than our own.

I want my audience to realize that the experiences of their lives will often be more than they can handle on their own, but God allows those experiences in their lives to show them that God is their source of strength and He wants them to fully rely on Him. In doing that, they remain humble and dependent on God and see their weaknesses and hardship as a tool God is using for constant reliance on Him.

Intro

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” “No pain, no gain.” Keep calm and carry on.” “God must think you are strong enough to handle it.” God will never give you more than you can handle.” If you’ve ever gone through a difficult season in life, it’s likely that you’ve heard some of these statements. Well meaning people who are trying to offer comfort, searching for the words to say, sometimes say things that they actually believe are accurate. In fact, I’ve even said some of these very same things trying to offer people comfort who are walking through the unimaginable. And if you’ve been around long enough, you realize that life does give us more than we can handle. A phone call in the middle of the night, a diagnosis we never expected, a tragedy that we couldn’t survive on our own. You see, nowhere in the Bible does is say that God will never give us more than we can handle. Nowhere, in Scripture does God promise that He will limit our hardship and sorrow to what we can bear. What the Bible does say is that when life is too much for us, God’s grace is enough. When we feel the weight of life bearing down on us, His power is made perfect in our weakness.

And today as we conclude this sermon series we’ve been walking through entitled The Bible Doesn’t Say That, that’s the truth that we are going to center on. As we open our copy of God’s Word this morning to 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 and we look again at the life of the Apostle Paul, what we see is a man who knew, firsthand in his life, the grace of God. You see, the Apostle Paul was a man who experienced incredible revelations of God in his life. He was a man who had experiences that brought him face to face with the risen Lord Jesus. He was used by God in mighty ways to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the known world at the time. But in the midst of all of that, he experienced weakness that kept him humbly dependent on his Savior and Lord. And in the midst of praying for God to remove this great burden from his life that he could not carry on his own, what Paul found was that instead of taking that burden away, God did something greater-He gave him the grace to sustain him in the midst of it.

And as we look to Paul’s example and see what God uses his life to reveal to us, what we realize is the God never promises to not give us more than we can handle in this life but He does desire for us to fully rely on Him in the midst of whatever we are facing. You see, the experiences of our lives will often be more than we can handle our own. But God allows those experiences in our lives to show us that He is our source of strength, and He wants us to fully rely on Him. And when we do that, we remain humble and we remain dependent on God realizing our weaknesses and hardship are tools God is using to draw us closer to Him.

Message

So, as we explore this misconception today and look to the truth of God’s Word, here’s our main idea: God often allows more than we can handle and brings us to the end of our own strength to teach us to fully rely on Him rather than ourselves or others, and because of this, we learn to trust in His strength rather than our own.

So, if it isn’t accurate to say that God will never give us more than we can handle, what is accurate? What does God teach us in His Word when it comes to difficulty in this life? Well, in our text today, the Apostle Paul shows us that when life overwhelms us God is at work in us in three powerful ways calling us to fully rely on Him. And the first way is this...

1. God provides grace to match every struggle. (1 Corinthians 10:13; 2Corinthians 12:6-7)

When people say that “God will never give you more than you can handle” they are usually misquoting a verse from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian believers. It’s found in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Turn there if you will for just a moment. It says this, “No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.”

So, when Paul writes his first letter to the Corinthian believers, the book of the Bible we call 1st Corinthians, and we talked about this a little bit last Sunday, he’s addressing all kinds of issues that have arisen among the believers in the church in Corinth. Not surprising, right, all churches have issues because churches are full of people and people are full of issues. And if we go back up a little earlier in chapter 10, we see what these issues are causing disunity in this church: the sin of lust, the sin of idolatry, the sin of sexual immorality, and the sin of grumbling and complaining and causing unnecessary disunity. Paul is walking them through all of these sins and using the example of the people of Israel from the OT who were faced with the same temptations. And he is doing this to put out a warning to these believers telling them to look to the example of the people of Israel as an example of what not to do. And then he follows that warning with the promise of vs. 13. In context, Paul is saying the reason we can bear temptation is because God is there with us and He is providing a way of escape. I love how one theologian frames this for us. He says, “Because of his great love for his children, God does not allow temptations to be so great that they overcome us. Instead, Christians sin because they do not search for a way out.” (Richard L. Pratt Jr.) So, in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul is writing about temptation to sin, not the burdens of life; and we see him emphasize the grace of God in our struggle with temptation. Which shows us first that...

a. God limits temptation so we can stand.

Here’s God’s promise to us in the midst of temptation-that no temptation will ever be so overwhelming for us that obedience is impossible. God in His grace on our lives provides a way for us to remain faithful to Him by choosing obedience over sin. Paul proclaims here that God is so gracious to us that in His grace on our lives He matches the struggle of temptation by assuring us that we will never face a temptation where sin is our only option. His grace is always enough for us to resist temptation. And also, the temptations we face are not unique to us, everyone faces the same temptation in some form or fashion. And here is an even greater truth, Jesus faced the same temptations we do and He resisted them as well. God knows exactly what we can handle, when it comes to temptation, and in His grace He places limits on how far the temptation can go in our lives and in His grace, He provides a way to stand in the midst of it.

Theologian Leon Morris gives us a beautiful illustration for this: “The image Paul paints for us here is that of an army trapped in rugged country, which manages to escape from an impossible situation through a mountain pass. The assurance of this verse is a permanent comfort and strength to believers. Our trust is in the faithfulness of God.” (1 Corinthians, 142)

Now how does this tie to what we are talking about today? Well, it’s all about grace. Because not only does God, in His grace, limit temptation so we can stand; He also...

b. God allows trials so we will kneel.

So, let’s connect this to our text in 2 Corinthians today. In our text today, we are reminded that God allows overwhelming circumstances into our lives, but in His grace He sustains us so that His power shines through our weakness. Trials come into our lives to make us humble and dependent on God.

When we get to 2 Corinthians 12, Paul has not changed his tune about the grace of God. Look at what he says here is vs. 6-7...

So, think about what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. Think about the life that he has lived. Just to give us a brief on the summary of his life: Paul was a guy who had it all. He grew up being trained by the smartest and highest lever Rabbi in Jerusalem. He had the highest form of education. He quickly rose up the ladder of success in the Jewish religious world. Deeply theological and passionate about the Jewish law. The first time we see him mentioned is in the Book of Acts and he is referred to as Saul and he is the one who is holding the cloaks of the Jewish religious leaders who are stoning Stephen to death for proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah the Savior. Fast forward a little bit, Paul (Saul) is sent to Damascus to arrest and probably kill Christians there and on the road to Damascus he has a face to face encounter with Jesus Christ who appears to him in a bright light, blinds him, and basically tells him from that day forward he will be used by God to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. And he spends the rest of his life teaching, preaching, and ministering the Gospel of Jesus to anyone who will listen. God used this man to take the Gospel to the entire known world at the time, he wrote most of the books in the NT portion of the Bible. He’s got a pretty good resume. And in addition to all of that, if we look in the first part of chapter 12, we see that 14 years before he writes this letter to the believers in Corinth, that he had a special vision where he actually went to heaven and experienced what heaven is like. These are the “extraordinary revelations” he’s talking about here. So, when we look at the whole of his life, he’s got reason to boast and he knows it.

But what does he say? He says “to keep me from bragging on myself and getting too prideful, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself.” Now, we don’t know what this is. There’s a lot of opinions by many scholars as to what this was but Paul never tells us. What we do know is that it was something that God allowed into his life to keep him humble and dependent on God. He describes it as “a thorn” meaning something that was constantly bringing pain and suffering to his life. I mean think about that, have you ever had a splinter or a thorn stuck in your hand or foot. As long as it’s there, it’s irritating and it is a constant source of pain. That’s what Paul is dealing with. There is something that has been allowed in his life that is constantly bringing him pain of some sort and it is allowed by God to be there.

You see Paul had reason to be prideful but he says to keep him from that pride and to keep him dependent on God, there is a constant trial he faces. Now, what do we do with that? Because that totally does away with this false teaching that “God will never give us more than we can handle.” Because Paul admits that whatever this is is beyond his ability to deal with on his own. And there, lies the revelation for us in all of this. God in His grace and love for us allows trials into our lives to keep us dependent on him. To cause us to realize our need for Him. Because that’s not going to be something we come to on our own. We need to need God and God knows we won’t, so He puts us in a position in our lives where we will recognize that we need Him and be driven to our knees in need of Him. And that’s the best place we can be in our lives. That’s not the most comfortable place but it is the best place for us. Every time God does something great in us or through us, He wants us to enjoy it, He wants it to bring us joy and cause us to glorify Him, but the moment we begin to get prideful and think it’s totally because of us, and we still His glory, He will, by His grace, insert a thorn into our lives to drive us back to Him and to keep us humble and dependent on Him.

God provides grace to match every struggle-He limits temptation so we can stand and He allows trials so we will kneel.

Second,...

2. God provides grace to sustain us in our weakness. (vs. 8-9)

By His grace, God allows trials into our lives so we will depend on Him but He doesn’t leave us there. In the midst of that trial, that “thorn,” His grace sustains us. Look at vs. 8-9....

What does Paul do? He prays. He is humbly dependent on God and in that dependence He is driven to God is prayer. When suffering comes into our lives in whatever form or fashion, there are several ways we can respond to it: a. We can become bitter and blame God. b. We can give up and not see what God is trying to show us and not increase in the depth of our dependence on God. c. We can try and manage it on our own and eventually burn out. d. Or, we can respond as Paul does, drawing closer to God.

Paul turns to God and three times asks God to remove the affliction. It’s very similar to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He is arrested, begging God for another way. He “pleads with God,” “he begs” God to take it away. Just imagine Paul, “Jesus I’m in agony, please remove this.” No answer. “God, please take this from me.” No answer. “God I ask you to remove this from my life in the name of Jesus.” Then God answers and what does He say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Wow! That’s the answer he gets from God. God says “I’m not going to remove this from your life but I will give you enough grace to sustain you in the midst of it.” Can you relate to that? I can. My wife and I can definitely relate to that. You pray and pray for God to take away a situation and instead, God says “Not yet. But I will give you grace to get you through it. I’ve got a purpose and a plan and I’m using this in your life to mold you into the person I’ve created you to be.” You see,...

a. In our weakness, we press into God’s strength.

When painful things come into our lives, we want to resist. We want those things taken away. But God says in our need for Him we press into His grace in our lives. In our weakness, we press into His strength because it is at that point we realize that we are weak but He is strong. God tells us that His power, His strength is perfected in our weakness. When we are weak and we are dependent on God, fully relying on Him and not on ourselves, that’s when God gets to work in our lives. You see, God’s answer for Paul may not have been what he wanted to hear but it was what he needed. Paul got something better than what he asked for. God gave him the strength to endure what was in his life which led him to total dependence on God.

Because it’s...

b. In God’s strength, we receive His power to endure. (“boast in my weakness,...)

Warren Wiersbe gives us some insight on this, “In the Christian life, we get many of our blessings through transformation, not substitution. When Paul prayed three times for the removal of his pain, he was asking God for a substitution: “Give me health instead of sickness, deliverance instead of pain and weakness.” Sometimes God does meet the need by substitution; but other times He meets the need by transformation. He does not remove the affliction, but He gives us His grace so that the affliction works for us and not against us.” (Wiersbe)

And that’s the point the Apostle Paul had gotten to in his life. He says in the second part of vs. 9...

What a place to be in our relationship with God. That we are so close to Him that we are willing to be obedient to whatever God has for us in this life. You see, the reason Paul could say this was because he recognized that it was not his strength that was enabling him but it was God’s power in him giving him the strength to endure. He says “I will boast in my weakness because when that happens Jesus is exalted and Jesus is glorified.”

Here’s the deal. You and I may have gone through or currently be going through things in our lives that we have asked God to remove and He hasn’t. Number one, that is to mold us and shape us into who He is creating us to be; but number two, and maybe even more important, that is so that through our lives God’s power is revealed and Jesus is exalted and Jesus is glorified. What greater purpose could we spend our lives on? What greater privilege could we have than to be used by God to bring honor and glory to Him? Is that easy? No, it’s difficult. But we have to get to the place in our lives where we realize that if God has allowed something into our lives, as we press into His strength, He will provide the power for us to endure for His glory.

Which leads us to the the final way God is at work...

3. God provides grace to reveal His power in us. (vs. 10)

I’m amazed at Paul’s perspective here. We’ve talked about this a lot in our D-Life Group with the guys I meet with on Wednesday nights. Paul was just a different breed. He was passionate about Jesus and the Gospel. You see, he had gotten to the place in his life where it did not matter where he was or what situation he was in, he was going to use that as an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And a main reason that he was the way he was, was he knew the grace of God in his life and he never got over that. He knew where God had brought him from and the grace he had been shown by God and that was something that was always at the forefront of his mind. You see, when we read the NT and all that Paul did in the Book of Acts and all he wrote, we see this great man of God that God used in mighty ways, but behind all of that was a life of suffering. Paul was a man God used greatly but he was a man that suffered deeply. But he was okay with that. Because he knew that it was all worth it and that in his suffering and his weakness, God’s power was at work in him and through him.

Pastor Eric Mason puts it this way, “The person God uses greatly, He always pains deeply.” (Mason)

Do you want to be used by God, prepare for pain. “God give me a platform at my job or my school to proclaim the Gospel,” get ready to suffer. “God use me to minister to this or that particular person,” get ready for an attack. But like Paul, when we get to that point in our lives, it won’t matter. Because we will be willing to suffer whatever God allows so that He is glorified. That’s a different way to live, that takes a different mindset, but it is possible because...

a. His power changes our perspective.

Paul says in vs. 10 (read the first part)

What? That’s crazy talk. Who says that? Nobody talks that way anymore. The grace of God had changed Paul’s perspective. He had come to the point in his life where God’s grace enabled him not to simply “endure” his sufferings but to glory in them to welcome them. Because he knew that his sufferings were being used by his Savior for a greater purpose. Did Paul enjoy suffering? No. Was it something he looked forward to? No. But because of the power of God working in him, his perspective on suffering was changed to the point where he knew how he handled it was bringing glory to God.

And when we get to the same place in our lives as Paul, we will begin to see the suffering God allows into our lives from a different perspective as well. God by His power will change our perspective on suffering. It will no longer be about God taking our suffering away, but it will be about how is God using suffering in our lives to reveal His power in us and how He has called us to see in through that situation in our lives. And this change in our perspective, by God’s power in us, will drive us from complaining the whole time to seeking God.

His power changes our perspective and...

b. His power equips us with the ability only He can provide.

Paul sums it all up in one statement. Everything he has said up to this point can be summarized in this one statement- “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” “When I am weak,...” When I am at the end of myself, when I have nothing left to give, when I am no longer relying on me. “Then I am strong,...” I am at my most capable, then I have everything I need, then I am given the ability by God to be up to the task. Not because of me but because of His power in me. Insults, hardships, suffering, and difficulty were causes for joy in Paul’s life because the power of God gave him an ability that was beyond himself.

Closing

I pray that we will be a people of God, that we will be the church that doesn’t look for pain but when God allows it in our lives, we don’t complain but we look to our God who says “rely on me, press into my strength and let me use suffering in your life to mold you and shape you into the person I created you to be and to use your life for my glory.”

God will allow more than we can handle to come into our lives because He never intended for us to handle life on our own. The thorn in Paul’s flesh proves it. But in the midst of suffering we can fully rely on Him because He provides grace to match every struggle, He provides grace to sustain us in our weakness, and ultimately, He provides grace to reveal His power in us.