God would never give you more than you can handle

Tylerx95

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Several years ago i had a debate with a Christian girl over the topic in the thread title.. I have a hard time believing that god exists nevermind one of the key things she said to me when i told her i no longer went to church because of a long history of physical abuse, weight gain and clinical depression that i had experienced.. She said that he wouldn't give me more than i could handle.. I then went to my grandmother who is a devout Christian and explained how hard it was to believe this theory because their are times i felt like giving up and have attempted suicide in the past.. she said its because he knows i can take so much.. I still have an issue believing in any of it because their are people who i personally know that have ended their life and i find myself asking if he didnt give them more than they could take why did they kill themselves as a relief? Its also important to remember i was baptized in the Episcopalian church and we used to go when i was younger but i find myself a borderline athiest now.. I haven't been to church for anything but a funeral in almost 15 years.. Id like to hear what ppl have to add to the above debate.
 

bekkilyn

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JoeP222w

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Several years ago i had a debate with a Christian girl over the topic in the thread title.. I have a hard time believing that god exists nevermind one of the key things she said to me when i told her i no longer went to church because of a long history of physical abuse, weight gain and clinical depression that i had experienced.. She said that he wouldn't give me more than i could handle.. I then went to my grandmother who is a devout Christian and explained how hard it was to believe this theory because their are times i felt like giving up and have attempted suicide in the past.. she said its because he knows i can take so much.. I still have an issue believing in any of it because their are people who i personally know that have ended their life and i find myself asking if he didnt give them more than they could take why did they kill themselves as a relief? Its also important to remember i was baptized in the Episcopalian church and we used to go when i was younger but i find myself a borderline athiest now.. I haven't been to church for anything but a funeral in almost 15 years.. Id like to hear what ppl have to add to the above debate.

"God would never give you more than you can handle"

Not a Biblical concept at all, but rather a false teaching. God gives us more than we can handle all of the time, since we did not self create, nor do we self sustain. [Ephesians chapter 2]

Its also important to remember i was baptized in the Episcopalian church and we used to go when i was younger but i find myself a borderline athiest now.

Being baptized or going to church has no bearing on whether or not a person is a Christian. There are many people who have been baptized and many people who have gone to church all their life, but when they stand before God, He will say to them, "Depart from me, I never knew you" and He will justly cast them into Hell.
 
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grasping the after wind

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As someone pointed out "God will never give you more than you can handle" is a not a biblical concept. So I would simply ignore it. God may or may not give you things to handle but a major tenet of Christianity is that you alone by yourself cannot handle anything.
 
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Monna

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"God would never give you more than you can handle"

Not a Biblical concept at all, but rather a false teaching.

Perhaps there are two sets off assumptions underlying the two sides of this argument. Sometimes it is useful to find out what assumptions are being made before condemning one or other side as "false."

1 Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Or in a more modern version (Complete Jewish Bible):
No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.

When I read the first statement and look over my life, I know it is true with one caviat: that God is with me. On the one hand I know the truth of Jesus' words "Without me you can do nothing." But the inverse is also true: with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

There is another assumption I am making: that hardships, difficulties, traumatic events, are things that almost always include some type of "temptation," whether that is to use the easy but morally wrong way out, to refuse to see God's hand in all things and claim his promise that he is working "in all things" for my benefit (Romans 8:28), or simply giving up on him, myself, and our relationship. All of these and other responses are covered by the word "temptation" in my mind, and so these situations are also covered in my mind by 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Remember too that Paul wrote this out of his experience which included witnessing the last half hour of Stephen's life, and his death by stoning. He saw that Stephen was able to "bear" the opposition, their rage against him and his dreadful death without denying his Lord or cursing his murderers. "Able to endure" does not mean "come out alive and thriving." He himself endured whippings, stonings, imprisonment, false accusation, shipwrech, and more, and remained faithful.

I would very much appreciate hearing the assumptions you are making, JoeP, when you say the statement is not Biblical and is a false teaching.
 
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grasping the after wind

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Perhaps there are two sets off assumptions underlying the two sides of this argument. Sometimes it is useful to find out what assumptions are being made before condemning one or other side as "false."

1 Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Or in a more modern version (Complete Jewish Bible):
No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.

When I read the first statement and look over my life, I know it is true with one caviat: that God is with me. On the one hand I know the truth of Jesus' words "Without me you can do nothing." But the inverse is also true: with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

There is another assumption I am making: that hardships, difficulties, traumatic events, are things that almost always include some type of "temptation," whether that is to use the easy but morally wrong way out, to refuse to see God's hand in all things and claim his promise that he is working "in all things" for my benefit (Romans 8:28), or simply giving up on him, myself, and our relationship. All of these and other responses are covered by the word "temptation" in my mind, and so these situations are also covered in my mind by 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Remember too that Paul wrote this out of his experience which included witnessing the last half hour of Stephen's life, and his death by stoning. He saw that Stephen was able to "bear" the opposition, their rage against him and his dreadful death without denying his Lord or cursing his murderers. "Able to endure" does not mean "come out alive and thriving." He himself endured whippings, stonings, imprisonment, false accusation, shipwrech, and more, and remained faithful.

I would very much appreciate hearing the assumptions you are making, JoeP, when you say the statement is not Biblical and is a false teaching.




As I also agreed with a part of the statement that JoeP made I will also address your question. The difference between our takes here is based upon the one assumption alone. That hardships etc involve a temptation. You assume that to be the case I assume those things to be totally unrelated to temptation. I would be interested in hearing why you assume they involve temptation as I do not see a connection.
 
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JoeP222w

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Perhaps there are two sets off assumptions underlying the two sides of this argument. Sometimes it is useful to find out what assumptions are being made before condemning one or other side as "false."

1 Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Or in a more modern version (Complete Jewish Bible):
No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.

When I read the first statement and look over my life, I know it is true with one caviat: that God is with me. On the one hand I know the truth of Jesus' words "Without me you can do nothing." But the inverse is also true: with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

There is another assumption I am making: that hardships, difficulties, traumatic events, are things that almost always include some type of "temptation," whether that is to use the easy but morally wrong way out, to refuse to see God's hand in all things and claim his promise that he is working "in all things" for my benefit (Romans 8:28), or simply giving up on him, myself, and our relationship. All of these and other responses are covered by the word "temptation" in my mind, and so these situations are also covered in my mind by 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Remember too that Paul wrote this out of his experience which included witnessing the last half hour of Stephen's life, and his death by stoning. He saw that Stephen was able to "bear" the opposition, their rage against him and his dreadful death without denying his Lord or cursing his murderers. "Able to endure" does not mean "come out alive and thriving." He himself endured whippings, stonings, imprisonment, false accusation, shipwrech, and more, and remained faithful.

I would very much appreciate hearing the assumptions you are making, JoeP, when you say the statement is not Biblical and is a false teaching.

Ephesians 2.
 
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Monna

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As I also agreed with a part of the statement that JoeP made I will also address your question. The difference between our takes here is based upon the one assumption alone. That hardships etc involve a temptation. You assume that to be the case I assume those things to be totally unrelated to temptation. I would be interested in hearing why you assume they involve temptation as I do not see a connection.

I'll let you choose the nature of the hardship.

Notice that I wrote that they "almost always include..." But I'll have a crack at identifying potential temptations in the hardship you describe.
 
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Monna

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But I'll have a crack at identifying potential temptations in the hardship you describe.

But I can already give examples - from the book of Job. Job was a very blessed and wealthy man, with a major agribusiness, largescale landowner, major employer, big family and so on. He was also a godly and upright man.

He lost virtually everything in one day. His livestock, his transportation (camels), his seven children, the first born's house, all gone.

When he learned of one disaster after another, he had in fact several options: one to be angry at fate, angry and bitter at the thieves and raiding parties, angry at God for the storm that took his children, resentful, looking around for someone to blame, feeling unjustly treated in the loss of everything he had worked so hard for, deeply hurt and angry at losing such important material things, and even his wonderful children. Those would be the normal temptations at the attitude level. Later, when he got boils all over his body and smelled so bad that he went out to sit on the ash heap, his "friends" came to "comfort him." They could not believe that he had not committed some terrible crime to warrent this kind of judgement. Another temptation to retort (and he was not silent) in very vehement and nasty terms. They advised him to "curse God and die." Certainly, this might have been very tempting to him. For he was absolutely convinced that he had not committed any morally wrong act. Instead, his response was to say:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (Job 1:21-22)
The story is of course of the Accuser saying that the only reason Job did not sin against God was because he had it so good. And that if God allowed him, the Accuser, to take everything Job owned this would cause Job to sin. That's where the temptation comes in, and why I use this story as a basis for believing that hardships are closely linked with temptation - the temptation to look for someone to blame (the original feature of both Adam and Eve's sin, was to blame someone else for their own actions - the temptation was to escape responsibility by "giving" it so someone else falsely accusing this other of causing their moral wrongdoing.) But also in Job's case, the temptation to believe that material well being was so very important, almost more important than life itself, the temptation to think that somehow we have earned it, and have lost it unjustly, not recognising that everything we have, including life itself, is a gift that we cannot claim to deserve.

The lesson we draw from Job's story and which Paul reiterated was "In everything give thanks." The impulse to react in any other way, is a temptation to do wrong. Jesus gave another example in praying for the forgiveness of the men nailing him to the cross while they were doing it. He would not succoumb to the temptation to curse them, be bitter towards them, resentful of their complicity and their unthinking attitude "I'm just doing what I was told to do." When he had fasted for 40 days and nights, he did not submit to the temptation to turn stone into bread, or submit to the other temptations that were put before him ... during the period of his hardship.
 
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keith99

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But I can already give examples - from the book of Job. Job was a very blessed and wealthy man, with a major agribusiness, largescale landowner, major employer, big family and so on. He was also a godly and upright man.

He lost virtually everything in one day. His livestock, his transportation (camels), his seven children, the first born's house, all gone.

When he learned of one disaster after another, he had in fact several options: one to be angry at fate, angry and bitter at the thieves and raiding parties, angry at God for the storm that took his children, resentful, looking around for someone to blame, feeling unjustly treated in the loss of everything he had worked so hard for, deeply hurt and angry at losing such important material things, and even his wonderful children. Those would be the normal temptations at the attitude level. Later, when he got boils all over his body and smelled so bad that he went out to sit on the ash heap, his "friends" came to "comfort him." They could not believe that he had not committed some terrible crime to warrent this kind of judgement. Another temptation to retort (and he was not silent) in very vehement and nasty terms. They advised him to "curse God and die." Certainly, this might have been very tempting to him. For he was absolutely convinced that he had not committed any morally wrong act. Instead, his response was to say:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (Job 1:21-22)
The story is of course of the Accuser saying that the only reason Job did not sin against God was because he had it so good. And that if God allowed him, the Accuser, to take everything Job owned this would cause Job to sin. That's where the temptation comes in, and why I use this story as a basis for believing that hardships are closely linked with temptation - the temptation to look for someone to blame (the original feature of both Adam and Eve's sin, was to blame someone else for their own actions - the temptation was to escape responsibility by "giving" it so someone else falsely accusing this other of causing their moral wrongdoing.) But also in Job's case, the temptation to believe that material well being was so very important, almost more important than life itself, the temptation to think that somehow we have earned it, and have lost it unjustly, not recognising that everything we have, including life itself, is a gift that we cannot claim to deserve.

The lesson we draw from Job's story and which Paul reiterated was "In everything give thanks." The impulse to react in any other way, is a temptation to do wrong. Jesus gave another example in praying for the forgiveness of the men nailing him to the cross while they were doing it. He would not succoumb to the temptation to curse them, be bitter towards them, resentful of their complicity and their unthinking attitude "I'm just doing what I was told to do." When he had fasted for 40 days and nights, he did not submit to the temptation to turn stone into bread, or submit to the other temptations that were put before him ... during the period of his hardship.

I would say his wife and children were given more than they could handle.
 
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Little Lantern

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Not a Biblical concept at all, but rather a false teaching.
This "saying" comes from incorrectly interpreting 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says that God will not allow you to be tempted above what you can handle. The truth is that earth life gives us many things we can't handle. When somebody makes that false statement to me, I reply, "The truth is- God won't allow anything to happen that He can't handle. (That make Him a pretty safe place to cling to.)
 
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keith99

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Why? and How?

As I said in a previous post "handle" does not mean "come out alive and thriving."

So is there any possible string of events and reactions that I could point to that would show that God had given someone more than they could handle?

What if events drove someone to suicide? Does that show God allowing an escape or does it show a person who failed and is forever Damned?
 
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grasping the after wind

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I'll let you choose the nature of the hardship.

Notice that I wrote that they "almost always include..." But I'll have a crack at identifying potential temptations in the hardship you describe.

Sorry i was unavailable to reply until now. So I will choose this hardship. Everyone in your immediate family, other than yourself, is killed in a terrorist attack.
 
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