​The Diamond in You!

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We have all heard, or may have even spoken, “God will not give us more than we can handle.”  Gosh that simply sounds so scriptural, doesn’t it?  How many of us have bought into that “Christian-eze” mentality and quote?

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A few weeks ago while I was driving home from a Ladies Luncheon, a little “word” dropped into my spirit.  I was thinking about the guest speaker we had at the luncheon, a wonderful woman of God that lives with three medical miracles – her husband, a war hero that was literally blown to bits in Iraq, and a set of twin baby girls that were conceived during his physical recovery that were born pre-maturely weighing in at only 2 and 3 pounds respectively at birth.  As we chatted after she spoke, you could tell she still questioned and wondered why God had chosen her to be a part of the lives of these three miracles.  She said, “God must think I can handle a lot because He will never give us more than we can handle.”  Without thinking, I agreed with her and moved on in wrapping up the luncheon.

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As I was driving home, while I was thinking about what I needed to do that afternoon, those final words of hers dropped back into my spirit with a word of correction or maybe a more correct perspective might be a better way to say it.  My first thought was to go find that Scripture and read it in context.  After an exhaustive search, and even recruiting a friend who is a Pastor’s wife, that common phrase that we quote so often, does not exist.   The closest Scripture to that quote is found in 1 Corinthians 10:13 which reads, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 

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That Scripture is talking about the evil one tempting us and God only allowing his temptations to go just so far in order that we always have the victory over anything that the devil tries to put in our pathway.  Our Christian-eze quotation, “God will not give us more than we can handle,” is shifting the burden-loading source from the devil to God.  Oh no – that’s another infamous trademark of the devil that dates all the way back to the Garden of Eden.  His classic craft is distortion, slightly changing the wording in order to alter the meaning of what was said originally by God.  Once again, the devil’s distortion puts the blame on God.

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As I was driving back to the house with this running through my thoughts, not fully realizing that this quote was not Scripture, an interesting new thought formed in my mind.  While the general consensus on this Christian-eze quote means that God is the source of the burdens we carry, but He will not give us more than we can handle, suddenly a new perspective with a more positive spin began to run through my mind which could somewhat tie back into that real Scripture we read from 1 Corinthians.

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God is not the source of our burdens and problems, and certainly is not the tempter, the devil is. Honestly, sometimes we cause a lot of our problems ourselves.  He (God) does allow life to challenge us, to stretch us, and to cause us to mature.  He is ever mindful of every aspect of our life, down to the very last detail.  He has an ultimate goal and purpose in mind for each of us.  As He lifts us to new levels of growth and development, He allows into our lives those things that will cause what is needed in order to mature and strengthen us.  When He’s perfecting a diamond, He knows just exactly how much pressure should be applied when and where along the way to remove the imperfections and bring forth that inner beauty.

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So the next time life seems to be a bit overwhelming, sit back, take a deep breath, and remember!  God is allowing you to grow, to stretch, and to become the beautifully perfected person He created you to be.  He will be with you all along the way.  Focus on the diamonds in front of you, knowing that the pressure of the moment is but for a season, but the diamonds in front of you, once having endured the pressure of perfecting, will last for all eternity.  Now that’s Good News!