The danger of platitudes

We want to encourage others who are struggling. We want to give them hope, a kind word or gesture. There is a danger in this. Sometimes when we can’t think of anything to say we resort to platitudes like, ‘God never gives anyone more than they can handle.’

I understand why people say this, but it isn’t true. Sometimes people are faced with situations that are by definition way more than they can handle. This is the point. We need to turn these problems over to God. What we can’t do, he can. It isn’t our toughness that gets us through struggles, it is reliance on God. Sometimes his ways are a mystery to us, and the pain of the journey can be extreme. But we are safer in His care than we are managing it on our own.

2 Corinthians 1: 8-11 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. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.