If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say it, I could take you to lunch. We’d eat well.

“I know the Bible says God won’t put on us more than we can bear,” has been heard so often, and I cringe every time. When I hear this remark, it usually comes from someone experiencing tough times and clinging to their faith by their fingernails. They comfort themselves that God knows their limitations and they’re confident that God won’t allow them to suffer more than they can bear. I cringe because that isn’t true. If I remain silent they will continue in error, but if I correct them, the path they must walk may seem even darker.

You see, the Bible doesn’t promise that. First Corinthians 10:13 (NIV) is the text that folks have in mind, but they haven’t understood it accurately. It reads, “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.” While the Greek word that’s used there can mean either “tempted” or “pressured,” the NIV correctly translates “tempted” because, in the rest of that chapter, Paul is writing about sin, not about the pressures and trials and difficulties of life. Paul wants his readers to understand that when we are tempted, God “will provide a way out so that you can endure it.” No one can ever truthfully say, “The Devil made me do it!”

Paul’s own life experiences taught him that the trials and pressures of life might be more than he could bear. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Paul writes, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death…”

Most scholars believe that Paul references a time in Ephesus when he was persecuted and might have been killed. In 1 Corinthians 15:32 Paul laments, “If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus,” perhaps cluing us in on the nature of that persecution.

Note what Paul says: “…great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure” so that he “despaired even of life itself.” Paul, no weakling in either body or soul, faced trials that were more than he could bear. It was so bad that he “felt…the sentence of death.” At least Paul can understand the reason: “…this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”

Paul acknowledged that he couldn’t rely on his own strength because the trials were “far beyond my ability to endure.” And then he said, “This happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God.”

So here’s the difficult truth: God may put on you more than you can bear. He may do that on purpose! God may let you walk through the darkness and wonder if you’ll ever see light again and, ironically, God will do that precisely because He loves you. God wants you to learn to trust Him when you have nothing and no one else because when you do that, you will discover that He is enough. God is enough.

Let’s think again about Paul’s personal experience. Remember that Paul had something wrong with his body (many scholars think it’s a problem with his eyes) that bothered him and he desperately wanted to be free from the malady. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Something was wrong, more than Paul felt he could tolerate. Paul asked God to relieve the pressure. God refused and said “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

The Bible never promises that God won’t put on you more than you can bear. It actually demonstrates that God may intentionally bring you face-to-face with more pressure than you can bear so that you can discover that nothing is ever more than He can help you bear. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. We can’t, but He can!

Mark Wilmoth is with Pinehurst Christian Church in Marietta; Minister@PinehurstChristianChurch.org.