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Myth: God will not give us more than we can handle...

Myth: God will not give us more than we can handle...

It is on my mind this morning. Something that has been imprinted on our minds ... God will not give us more than we can handle. People say it to one another when others are struggling, when they try to encourage others. But is it really true? Try encouraging the parents of a severely autistic child, or the parents who locked their autistic twins in the basement, or the mom that tried to kill her autistic daughter. 
What about the autistic people themselves? Some know that they are hurting, that they are different, that they are being mistreated, but they cannot express themselves, those that do are being ignored. 
God will not give us more  than we can handle...

Where does that come from? Why are we still spreading this nonsense?

1 Corinthians 10:13 talks about being tempted or tested and with every test God is give a way out. But it does not say the God will not give us more than we can handle. Here is an excerpt from Chris McCurley's blog: Life in the Light

"Throughout scripture we encounter people who seem to be burdened beyond what they felt they could handle.
The notion that God will never give you more than you can handle is not supported in God’s word, and it’s not supported by real life either. We often don’t have a choice when it comes to dealing with adversity. We don’t choose cancer. We don’t choose for our spouse to leave us for another. We don’t choose for our loved one to die. We can choose, however, to rely on God. When life deals us more than we can handle, we can rest in the reality that God is there (Heb. 13:5). Where is God when you feel that you are dealing with more than you can bear? He is with you (1 Pet. 5:7). Our Lord is intimately acquainted with suffering. The prophet Isaiah wrote:
“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried… (Isa. 53:3-4).”"
Just living life makes me sure that we will be given more than we can handle, even if we look at the Bible we see what happened to Job. Even Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane that the burden is too heavy. 

I am sure that there are thousands of parents of autistic children that wants a normal life, that don't want to try and find a babysitter to look after their child just so they can take a break (if they can afford it). Parents who want to go shopping without a meltdown. Parents who want to have their child in a main-stream school, instead of worrying where the money will come from for one-on-one teaching. Parents do not know what to do with their autistic children when they grow up, or worry about what is going to happen to them when they as parents are too old to care for them.

And this is precisely where our western society falls flat on our face We do not trust God, and we are too selfish to admit that we have a problem and ask for help, and we are too selfish to lend a hand! People will intrude in my space, my time, my family, my money, don't touch my money!

A couple of times in my life I have been to the point where everything became too much, but when I flee to nature and spend time with God, I somehow got the energy and answers to carry on. 







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