NEVER MORE THAN YOU CAN BEAR

Just this week a friend of mine was telling me about a health problem that will require a somewhat risky medical procedure. She has already survived a battle with cancer, several heart attacks and a stroke. She has raised her children on her own, endured financial woes and more. Anyway, she said to me, 'I don't know how much more I can take. I know they say God will not put more on you than you can bear, but . . .' To which, I mumbled something about praying for her. So much for always being prepared to give an answer for the hope that is in us.

At any rate, I couldn’t let it go, the thought nagged me all afternoon – where does that thought come from? Where in the Scriptures does it say that God will never put more on us than we can bear?

I know there is the Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:13, that promises God will not allow us to be 'tempted' more than we can bear, but that He will provide a way out, but that’s about temptation, isn't it? It doesn't seem to cover her situation. I don’t think she is exactly being 'tempted' to be ill.

Next, I thought of the apostle Paul when he described all that he had suffered - thieves, shipwreck, hunger, exhaustion, being cold and naked. Then there were the beatings, imprisonments, being stoned and, in his words, ‘exposed to death again and again. Added to all that were what he called 'the daily pressures' of his responsibilities to the church. The situations he endured might come a little closer to what she is feeling she has been through and yet Paul called them ‘light afflictions’. Light, really?

As I pondered the point, I feel God gave me an answer. Do you remember Jesus saying, ‘come unto me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light’?

Jesus wasn’t saying there wouldn’t be any burdens. He wasn’t saying life would be easy. What He was saying was that He wants us to allow Him to get up under that burden with us. That He will shoulder most of it and lighten our load, if we let Him.

I heard a story once about a little boy who was trying to open a jar, his dad walked up and asked him if he had used everything at his disposal to open it and the little boy said yes. He had tried everything he could think of. His dad then reminded him that he had not used his greatest source of strength, because he had not yet asked his father to help.

It’s when we try to carry our burdens on our own, fight our battles on our own, or when we try to live in our own strength that we are overwhelmed. That’s why Jesus came, that’s why He gave us the Holy Spirit, because He knew we could not do anything in our own strength. As He said, ‘apart from Me you can do nothing’.

So will God allow us to have more problems than we can bear? Yes - if that is what it takes to bring us to the realization that we need Him. A loving parent will often do things that on the surface may seem harsh in order to do what is best for the child.© 2011 Rachel Whelan