The truth about sharing your burdens with others. It’s not a sin, it’s Biblical

Opening up to people is a very hard thing to do because of what others think and how they react to you. Most people assume that if you share your burdens with others that you want something from them. They just jump to a conclusion that you’re asking for money, your faith is weak, or a myriad of other false assumptions. It’s Biblical to ask for prayer and to share your burdens, but many Christians see it as a weakness. Believe me when I tell you that there’s nothing harder than sharing a tragedy in your life and having so many people think these thoughts about you. It’s humiliating and beyond description. I pray that nobody else has to ever experience this. To those who have provided wonderful words of encouragement during my trials, I praise God for you and pray that the Lord will bless you for the wonderful heart that you possess. For those who scolded me for sharing to much, and appearing weak, I will set my problems aside and pray that you find a relationship with Jesus that enables you to have compassion for others and follow his example of love over law…:)

 Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Luke 10:30-37 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Does the Bible really say that God will not give us more than we can handle? This will surprise you.

Don’t people always say “God will never give us more than we can handle” ? Yes, they certainly do. However, that is a worldly belief, not a biblical one.

There is nowhere in the Bible where God says He won’t give us more than we can handle.

The confusion most likely originates from 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says,“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (NIV) But this verse mentions temptations, not burdens.

In this verse, Paul is saying that we will never be ‘tempted’ beyond what we can stand up against in God’s strength, not that we will never feel burdened beyond what we can handle.

In fact, the past few years I’ve wondered if God was giving me more than I could handle, and I’ve felt very burdened. I think all of us feel like that at times.  But with so many concerns pulling at my heart and so many different people and medical situations needing my attention, it’s been hard to wonder when I would break from all the loads I was carrying!  Not only because my time has been pressed, but my heart has been pressed as well.

But a few weeks ago, when thinking about why there seemed to be so many burdens to carry, I started noticing that I was getting more and more hungry for more and more of God. As if exerting so much energy carrying my burdens had made me hungry, hungry for God.

As a result, I’ve been waking up in the mornings, and the very first thing that keeps coming to mind is a desire to pray.  I can’t help but pick up my devotion book and read through it before I do anything else, because I want to see if God has a nugget for me that morning.  Maybe an answer to prayer or wisdom for the day. I’ve also been having a hard time turning off my Christian radio station, just in case God wants to speak to me through song.

All too often, we think we don’t have time for God, and we begin to rely on our own strength and wisdom to handle life’s problems, gradually creating a chasm between us and God, and eventually plummeting us into a desperate state of despair.  Instead of actively expecting God to step into our situations, we passively try to shoulder all the burdens, and eventually begin to feel weak and overwhelmed. We forget to seek God out in the big and the small situations.

We may even find ourselves questioning God about all that He is allowing us to endure, and wondering if just maybe He did give us more than we could handle. Friend, the truth is, He probably has. The old saying that says He won’t do that is merely a myth.

All throughout the Bible we read of regular people who were handed seemingly impossible burdens to bear but instead of trying to handle life on their own, they drew closer to God, fully relying on Him for direction and deliverance. We read in scripture of how God gave each individual more they could handle on their own and then filled them with strength and capability every step of the way.

Just like the characters in scripture, God longs for us to depend on Him when we are feeling overwhelmed with life and burdened by more than we can handle. He wants us to spend time with Him so we can be filled with what we need to get through each day.

In Matthew 19:26 Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

When our load seems too heavy to carry, it might be that God is not only waiting for us to recognize that we can’t handle it on our own, but also hoping that our desperation will build our spiritual appetite so much so that we wake up starving every morning.

No matter what life hands us, just know that God will never give us more than HE can handle. We can’t do it all, but He can.

And that is a fact.

Where in the Bible does it say that God will not give us more than we can handle? You may be surprised.`

Don’t people always say “God will never give us more than we can handle” ? Yes, they certainly do. However, that is a worldly belief, not a biblical one.

There is nowhere in the Bible where God says He won’t give us more than we can handle.

The confusion most likely originates from 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says,“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (NIV) But this verse mentions temptations, not burdens.

In this verse, Paul is saying that we will never be ‘tempted’ beyond what we can stand up against in God’s strength, not that we will never feel burdened beyond what we can handle.

In fact, the past few years I’ve wondered if God was giving me more than I could handle, and I’ve felt very burdened. I think all of us feel like that at times.  But with so many concerns pulling at my heart and so many different people and medical situations needing my attention, it’s been hard to wonder when I would break from all the loads I was carrying!  Not only because my time has been pressed, but my heart has been pressed as well.

But a few weeks ago, when thinking about why there seemed to be so many burdens to carry, I started noticing that I was getting more and more hungry for more and more of God. As if exerting so much energy carrying my burdens had made me hungry, hungry for God.

As a result, I’ve been waking up in the mornings, and the very first thing that keeps coming to mind is a desire to pray.  I can’t help but pick up my devotion book and read through it before I do anything else, because I want to see if God has a nugget for me that morning.  Maybe an answer to prayer or wisdom for the day. I’ve also been having a hard time turning off my Christian radio station, just in case God wants to speak to me through song.

All too often, we think we don’t have time for God, and we begin to rely on our own strength and wisdom to handle life’s problems, gradually creating a chasm between us and God, and eventually plummeting us into a desperate state of despair.  Instead of actively expecting God to step into our situations, we passively try to shoulder all the burdens, and eventually begin to feel weak and overwhelmed. We forget to seek God out in the big and the small situations.

We may even find ourselves questioning God about all that He is allowing us to endure, and wondering if just maybe He did give us more than we could handle. Friend, the truth is, He probably has. The old saying that says He won’t do that is merely a myth.

All throughout the Bible we read of regular people who were handed seemingly impossible burdens to bear but instead of trying to handle life on their own, they drew closer to God, fully relying on Him for direction and deliverance. We read in scripture of how God gave each individual more they could handle on their own and then filled them with strength and capability every step of the way.

Just like the characters in scripture, God longs for us to depend on Him when we are feeling overwhelmed with life and burdened by more than we can handle. He wants us to spend time with Him so we can be filled with what we need to get through each day.

In Matthew 19:26 Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

When our load seems too heavy to carry, it might be that God is not only waiting for us to recognize that we can’t handle it on our own, but also hoping that our desperation will build our spiritual appetite so much so that we wake up starving every morning.

No matter what life hands us, just know that God will never give us more than HE can handle. We can’t do it all, but He can.

And that is a fact.