Unbearable

I often hear people loosely quote 1 Corinthians 10:13 as "God will not give you more than you can bear."  What the passage actually says is, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it."  

You can see that God's promise and our loose interpretation are not at all the same. God's actual promise is generally dismissed as we make excuses for why we can't help giving in to temptation. We tend to agree more with Mark Twain's quip: "I can resist anything except temptation."

However, loose interpretation notwithstanding, I do believe that God does not give us more than we can bear as he provides us the resources to carry our burdens. Jesus says, "come unto me and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). And the Christian community is charged with "carry each other's burdens" (Gal 6:2).  Through the Spirit of Christ and the fellowship of His children, God does provide that burden-bearing ability.

So, how is it that even Christians seem to be overcome with burden to the point of deep depression?  First, they often do not avail themselves of God's help, choosing not to turn to Jesus or the church for help. Second, they increase the burden that God allowed. Really?  How is that possible?

Jesus said, "Do not worry about tomorrow...each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt 6:34). We take "enough" and make it too much by adding the worries of tomorrow to the problems of today. And, as if that were not more than enough, we tend to dredge up the regets of yesterday and add them to the pile.  We just collapsed under the weight. 

God doesn't give us too much - we do that on our own. Jus' Sayn.