Hey guys, so I was recently asked about this quote, and it made me question it too. Is this a valid saying in the Bible and God's word? I know that we can't compare the "levels" of our battles and that it isn't wise to. I know that people are more than capable of overcoming any obstacle under God's strength, but then again it feels "insensitive" to say this quote to someone who experiences something like sexual abuse as a child. Some help with this? I am a Protestant and this question gave me a brain-fart.
God's word doesn't say that. So no, it is not valid. God in fact does quite the opposite sometimes, and his reasons are pretty obvious: All glory belongs to God. And we need to grow, to come to depend on him.
Include with this saying the notion that God never gives us battles that are too big for us, and that THE reason he takes us through struggles is to prepare us to help others going through similar struggles.
The ideas, such as that God will not burden us beyond what we are able to bear, or that his plans for us are always good, are interpreted and expressed by many in such a way as to bring others to conclude such promises are false. I'm not trying to criticize Christianity with this, but to encourage further study and walking with God. The way some talk, as if they have the structure of Christian living all figured out, God's part and our part, etc, tells me they have their rose-colored glasses on when they read the Bible.
So far, in my experience, (and I can't help but feel like it is, in part, because I prayed for consistent obedience and to know him better, God has taken me through more trouble than I would wish on my worst enemy, and it is not over yet. And through this I have learned (ha! I wish!) that HE is my life, and everything else is worthless; maybe it is more accurate to say that anything in this life that is worthy and desirable is because of and through knowing HIM. It has nothing to do with "he does his part and I do mine".
Also, I want to emphasize that the notion that he only puts us through what he does because of his desire to oppose evil with good, as though duality with evil is consistent with fact, is only perhaps poetic —it is false. He doesn't win the big war by winning small battles. If that was his method, then his apparent losses show his weakness, not his strength. Instead, such losses (assessed as losses by that measure) are for the purpose of our growth, fitting us for his primary purpose for us, to become his people, his place of residence, his body, his bride, his sons —in other words, for Heaven, to his glory. We are not complete beings until we see him as he is, finally completely one with him.