Will God Give Us Too Much to Handle? 7 Biblical Examples

There’s a story pop culture likes to tell us. It says, you got this. If you’ll dig down a little deeper, you can drum up the grit to push through. If you just work harder and just get braver, you can do that hard thing.

Yeah, you got this, the story goes.

Scripture shows us another story. God’s Word says apart from Jesus, not only do we not have this, we got nothing. “…for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Will God give us too much to handle? Biblical examples of even giants in the faith show God allows circumstances in our lives that are too much for us to handle.

People may mean well when they cheer you got this. But it’s not rooted in Biblical truth.

We weren’t created for independence or self-sufficiency. God created us for total dependency on Him in all things. Suffering reveals where we’ve nurtured the idol of self-sufficiency.

There’s not enough moxie in creation to handle excruciating losses like the death of a child or spouse or parent. Grit won’t carry you through chronic illness or unwanted divorce. You can’t just try harder when a business fails or depression sets in.

Let’s look at seven Biblical examples where God allowed people to face circumstances too hard to handle.

7 People in the Bible whose circumstances were too much to handle

1.Moses

Moses had such spiritual intimacy he was called the friend of God. Yet, Moses encountered several situations that were too much to handle. It was in trying to handle an issue too-big for him that he first got in trouble. Moses killed an Egyptian mistreating a fellow Hebrew and then had to run for his life, hiding on the backside of the desert for 40 years.

When God called Moses to lead Israel out of slavery, Moses argued he couldn’t do it. He doubted the Israelites would obey him, contended his speech issues disqualified him and finally begged God: “Please, Lord, send someone else.” (Ex. 4:13)

Moses was again stretched beyond his ability during the wilderness wandering. The Hebrews were serial complainers, complaining about water, the leadership, not having meat, and only having manna to eat. Moses lamented to God: “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.” (Nu 11:14-15)

Sometimes we wait until we’re absolutely tapped out to ask God for help when God had it all along. God provided Aaron to help Moses stand against Pharaoh and 70 elders to help him lead Israel.

2. Gideon

Gideon first appears in scripture hiding in a winepress. The angel of the Lord appeared, calling him “mighty man of valor” and instructing him to free Israel from its Midianite oppressors. The Midianites were massive in number and ruthless in tactics.

Gideon immediately replied this task was too hard for him. “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

God’s response? “I will be with you.” (Judges 6:16)

God may put us in circumstances too hard for us because if we could handle it, we’d be tempted to steal God’s glory. (Judges 7:2) Twice, God whittled down Gideon’s fighting force – from 32,000 men to 300. This small force led by Gideon, a farmer, would face off against an army too numerous to count.

It was an impossible task and calling too big for Gideon to handle.

But God never intended for Gideon to handle it. God fought for the Hebrews. When Gideon and his men stood against their enemies, they had a torch in one hand and trumpet in the other. They weren’t even holding their swords! But God caused the enemy army to turn on each other and when the remaining remnant fled, Gideon and his men pursued, captured and killed them.  

3 . David

David, the valiant warrior and faithful king, faced circumstances too hard for him to handle. “I am poured out like water…my heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.” (Psalm 22:14)

David could have penned these words in one of many overwhelming situations. He was completely unmatched as he went one-on-one against Goliath, the 10-foot giant and seasoned warrior who terrified every soldier in Saul’s army.

He ran for his life from Saul for years, always trying to keep one step ahead of Saul’s army and potential betrayers. Later, he was forced to run from his own son as Absolom tried to overthrow the kingdom.

David counted on God alone to deliver him in each situation. When God brought peace from every enemy, David wrote:

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
    he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
    from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
    but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me. (2 Sam. 22:17-20)

4. Jehoshaphat

This is a story that strengthened me in the overwhelm of grief and suddenly solo-parenting my seven children. (LINK) King Jehoshaphat learned a vast army was mounting an unprovoked attack against Judah. He went to the temple to plead for God’s help: “For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chron. 20:12)

Ever been there? Powerless to fix your situation and clueless how to move forward?

A cheery “you got this” is zero help. Like Jehoshaphat, we need to go to God and plead for His help.

Because God’s help is more than we could ask or imagine. Look at God’s reply to Jehoshaphat: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s…Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem.” (2 Chron. 20:15-17)

The next morning, God set an ambush and when Jehoshaphat’s army crested the hill, they saw a battlefield littered only with dead bodies. Not one enemy had escaped. And to top it off, there was so much plunder it took three days to cart it to Jerusalem.

5. Elijah

The prophet Elijah found himself in circumstances too difficult to handle. He was a bold prophet in Israel during the time when King Ahab, the most wicked king ever to sit on Israel’s throne, ruled. Ahab was a murderous, power-hungry king who married his equal—Jezebel, the daughter of a pagan priest-king of Baal. Together, Ahab and Jezebel slaughtered as many of God’s prophets as they could and led Israel into flagrant idol worship.

Elijah was no featherweight. He’d faced-down Ahab and prophesied three years of famine because of Ahab’s evil, depended on God to provide for him in hiding, prayed, raised a widow’s son back to life and then powerfully challenged eight hundred prophets of Baal on the summit of Mount Carmel to prove God was the only true God.

But when Jezebel threatened to kill Elijah, it was too much. Elijah fled to the wilderness and there, prayed for his death. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life.” (1 King 19:4, NIV) Elijah, the bold, brash man full of God’s power, had come to a place where circumstances were too hard to handle.

God never shook his head disappointingly at Elijah or rebuked him for reaching a place of utter dependence. How did God respond? He sent his presence to be with him. When circumstances were too much for Elijah to handle, God answered with himself.

6. Hagar

Hagar was Sarah’s slave and had a son Ishmael with Abraham. A few years after Isaac was born, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. They wandered in the desert until their skin of water ran out. In a heartbreaking scene, Hagar left Ishmael under one bush and then sat down a bowshot away because she couldn’t bear to watch her son die and perhaps too, couldn’t bear to hear him cry.

Sobbing alone and absolutely hopeless, Hagar was unable to fix this for herself or her son. If you’ve ever felt rejected, take hope in Hagar’s story.

Hagar may have been rejected by those she should have been able to count on, but she was never abandoned by God.

God assured her through an angel that He saw their pain. He reminded her of His promise to make Ishmael into a great nation and then met their need. God opened Hagar’s eyes and there in front of her, was a well of water.

7. Paul

As an apostle spreading the gospel among Hebrews and Roman gentiles, Paul suffered hardship after hardship that stretched him far past his human capacity to handle. Here’s his summary in Second Corinthians:

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. (2 Cor. 11:24-28)

On one missionary journey, Paul said he suffered “far beyond [his] ability to endure” and thought he would die. (2 Cor. 1:9) But those too-hard-to-handle circumstances were “the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally…”

Paul teaches us something else. If we could handle everything, we’d never experience God’s power at work in us. Paul had begged God three times to remove the thorn in his flesh. God’s answer was to leave the thorn and provide his sustaining grace.

Paul even learned to boast in his weakness, because the power of Christ would rest on him. In Paul’s utter weakness, he found God strong.

Let’s set aside the story that “we got this” and rest instead in complete dependence on God. We will each of us go through circumstances too hard to handle, but we can count on our God to carry us, fight for us and provide for us in it.

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