21 Days of Prayer & Fasting: Day 10
21 Days of Prayer & Fasting
Day 10 - How did Jesus use blindness to bring people to Himself?
In the New Testament, blindness is a powerful analogy Jesus uses for what is wrong with us in our natural state. The healing of blindness is a metaphor for what God is trying to do in salvation. In the Gospels, blindness is never just physical, but spiritual as well. In Mark 8:18 Jesus said, “Do you have eyes but fail to see?” The disciples weren’t “seeing” that Jesus was comparing the “yeast” of the Pharisees to wrongful teaching. The disciples had “bread” on their minds, since they just fed the multitudes through a recent miracle. The healing of Bartimaeus mirrors the passage of time it took for the disciples to understand the gospel message and all the fullness of salvation through Jesus.
By the time Jesus heals Bart, the disciples had been following Jesus for 2 years. And they still weren’t getting it. Sound familiar?
Have you been following Jesus for years and still not fully “seeing” what following Jesus is all about, e.g. selflessness, sacrifice, generosity, faithfulness, etc.? Have you fully grasped Jesus’ vision and plan of salvation? Or maybe you’ve not been following Jesus very long at all, and trying to figure this all out! He longs for us to continually come to Him and get to know Him as we try to become more like HIm.
Prayer: Dear Lord, if there is any seed of spiritual blindness that blurs my vision of you, please remove it. May I have the plea and faith of Bartimaeus: “Lord, I want to see!” Open my eyes to become more like you! Amen.
In the New Testament, blindness is a powerful analogy Jesus uses for what is wrong with us in our natural state. The healing of blindness is a metaphor for what God is trying to do in salvation. In the Gospels, blindness is never just physical, but spiritual as well. In Mark 8:18 Jesus said, “Do you have eyes but fail to see?” The disciples weren’t “seeing” that Jesus was comparing the “yeast” of the Pharisees to wrongful teaching. The disciples had “bread” on their minds, since they just fed the multitudes through a recent miracle. The healing of Bartimaeus mirrors the passage of time it took for the disciples to understand the gospel message and all the fullness of salvation through Jesus.
By the time Jesus heals Bart, the disciples had been following Jesus for 2 years. And they still weren’t getting it. Sound familiar?
Have you been following Jesus for years and still not fully “seeing” what following Jesus is all about, e.g. selflessness, sacrifice, generosity, faithfulness, etc.? Have you fully grasped Jesus’ vision and plan of salvation? Or maybe you’ve not been following Jesus very long at all, and trying to figure this all out! He longs for us to continually come to Him and get to know Him as we try to become more like HIm.
Prayer: Dear Lord, if there is any seed of spiritual blindness that blurs my vision of you, please remove it. May I have the plea and faith of Bartimaeus: “Lord, I want to see!” Open my eyes to become more like you! Amen.
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