every good and perfect gift...
True or False? "God will not give you more than you can bear"
A woman said this to me the other day, prefaced by "I know the Bible says that…." And followed by, "but my shoulders are just not this big." One awful thing after another happens to this woman and her little family. It makes me tired just to think about what she and her family has all gone through. She is a fairly new believer and has, somewhere along the line, heard this statement that "God will not give you more than you can bear." The statement is meant to be an encouragement, but the question is, Is it true?
Another statement, meant to be an encouragement is this. "Everything happens for a reason." This statement is not written in the Bible, but is widely quoted among Christian circles. Again, same question. Is it true??
In fact, the first statement is also not recorded in the Bible. It is a misquote of 1Chorinthians 10:13 which says " No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
The first statement was said in response to yet another very scary health issue recently diagnosed by a doctor. The implication, then, is that God has given her this ‘disease’, and if she just bucks up, she’ll be able to bear it. "God will not give you…" The verse that was misquoted was actually referring to temptation to sin, not to diseases, to marriage issues, to financial difficulties, and we dare not say, especially in regard to temptation, that God gave it to us. Temptation comes, but not from God. Disease comes, but not from God. Marriage difficulties come, but not from God. You get the point.
If not from God, then, from where??
The second statement that "everything happens for a reason" also implies that God makes everything happen. At least that is what is implied by the people I hear it from. It is a take off of Romans 8:28 " And we know that in all things God works for good for those who love him, and are called according to his purpose." Another statement stemming from this verse is this; "God allows things he could prevent." These statements are true, but in my heart I believe that they are being misunderstood. The sense I get from people who are saying this is that they believe that God sends all things. There is a difference between God allowing things, and God sending things, but we are not discerning this difference. This causes a difficulty in knowing the will and the heart and the character of God. The Bible says that every good and perfect gift…. comes from God. It also says that the will of God is good and pleasing and perfect.
This goes back to my post called good is good and bad is….good?? How can something that we all agree is bad, be given to us by God? But in her statement that God will not give her more than she can bear, she is believing that God is giving her family member this disease and that he will just keep piling on the bad stuff until she’s on the very verge of cracking, and then, just make her hold it there. That is very much how it looks from her vantage point. He’s says she’s tough enough, now it’s up to her to prove it. How sad. How can she possibly hold the belief that God is good under these circumstances?
What has not entered her mind yet, is that there is an enemy, whose whole entire function is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. There are forces of evil. They are out, actively seeking those he (they) may devour.
I believe we tread very dangerously when we begin to call evil good, when we say that God gave us this disease. We are calling the work of the devil the will of God. (Of course, we’d never actually say it, but we would certainly imply it, both by what we say, and by what we don’t say.)
The devil is absolutely piling on more than she can bear. His intention is absolutely to break her. Part of his tactic is to take focus off of himself and blame the load on God, make her feel guilty for feeling so weak, and hopefully in so doing, cause her to lose her faith in the ‘so called God of love.’ We play right into his hand when we try to console her with words and implications that are not true. We think we can ignore the devil and he will go away. He won’t. Jesus response to the devil was never to ignore him. The disciples didn’t ignore him either. Nor Paul….
A woman said this to me the other day, prefaced by "I know the Bible says that…." And followed by, "but my shoulders are just not this big." One awful thing after another happens to this woman and her little family. It makes me tired just to think about what she and her family has all gone through. She is a fairly new believer and has, somewhere along the line, heard this statement that "God will not give you more than you can bear." The statement is meant to be an encouragement, but the question is, Is it true?
Another statement, meant to be an encouragement is this. "Everything happens for a reason." This statement is not written in the Bible, but is widely quoted among Christian circles. Again, same question. Is it true??
In fact, the first statement is also not recorded in the Bible. It is a misquote of 1Chorinthians 10:13 which says " No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
The first statement was said in response to yet another very scary health issue recently diagnosed by a doctor. The implication, then, is that God has given her this ‘disease’, and if she just bucks up, she’ll be able to bear it. "God will not give you…" The verse that was misquoted was actually referring to temptation to sin, not to diseases, to marriage issues, to financial difficulties, and we dare not say, especially in regard to temptation, that God gave it to us. Temptation comes, but not from God. Disease comes, but not from God. Marriage difficulties come, but not from God. You get the point.
If not from God, then, from where??
The second statement that "everything happens for a reason" also implies that God makes everything happen. At least that is what is implied by the people I hear it from. It is a take off of Romans 8:28 " And we know that in all things God works for good for those who love him, and are called according to his purpose." Another statement stemming from this verse is this; "God allows things he could prevent." These statements are true, but in my heart I believe that they are being misunderstood. The sense I get from people who are saying this is that they believe that God sends all things. There is a difference between God allowing things, and God sending things, but we are not discerning this difference. This causes a difficulty in knowing the will and the heart and the character of God. The Bible says that every good and perfect gift…. comes from God. It also says that the will of God is good and pleasing and perfect.
This goes back to my post called good is good and bad is….good?? How can something that we all agree is bad, be given to us by God? But in her statement that God will not give her more than she can bear, she is believing that God is giving her family member this disease and that he will just keep piling on the bad stuff until she’s on the very verge of cracking, and then, just make her hold it there. That is very much how it looks from her vantage point. He’s says she’s tough enough, now it’s up to her to prove it. How sad. How can she possibly hold the belief that God is good under these circumstances?
What has not entered her mind yet, is that there is an enemy, whose whole entire function is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. There are forces of evil. They are out, actively seeking those he (they) may devour.
I believe we tread very dangerously when we begin to call evil good, when we say that God gave us this disease. We are calling the work of the devil the will of God. (Of course, we’d never actually say it, but we would certainly imply it, both by what we say, and by what we don’t say.)
The devil is absolutely piling on more than she can bear. His intention is absolutely to break her. Part of his tactic is to take focus off of himself and blame the load on God, make her feel guilty for feeling so weak, and hopefully in so doing, cause her to lose her faith in the ‘so called God of love.’ We play right into his hand when we try to console her with words and implications that are not true. We think we can ignore the devil and he will go away. He won’t. Jesus response to the devil was never to ignore him. The disciples didn’t ignore him either. Nor Paul….
posted by toomanywhatifs at
9:26 AM
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