By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” – Mother Teresa

There are a lot of things in the Bible that we just don’t know. There are mysteries and things that confound us. There are questions that we simply won’t know the answer to on this side of eternity.

One of these mysteries occurs in Mark 8:22-26. See if you can figure out what it is:

“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’

He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, ‘Don’t even go into the village.’”

Do you know what it is?

It is this: Why wasn’t Jesus able to heal the blind man the first time? On His first try, Jesus only performed a partial miracle. We see Jesus heal a lot of different people in the Bible: the lame, the demon-possessed, and the paralyzed. He always is able to get it right on the first go. What makes this instance different?

I don’t know that we will ever know for sure, but I have an idea. I think that what Jesus shows us here is that God sometimes decides to only do half of what we ask of Him. Sometimes His healing is partial, our view into His will is limited, and His relief is a fraction of what we think we need.

But the truth is this:

God knows what you can bear. He knows how much you can handle.

“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,” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Sometimes God chooses to only relieve part of our burden so that we will lean on Him. If the burden is beyond what you can bear, you can be sure that God will remove you from that situation.

God is faithful.

Parents: Read your children this story about the blind man. Ask them why they think that Jesus only partially healed the man. Tell them that God will not allow them to be tempted beyond what they can bear.