Your Faith has Healed You!

Life is full of challenges. As you read that what challenge comes to mind that you are facing?  For some of us, it is financial, for others relationships, and still others health, the need for work, etc. What is unhealthy is when we let the problem(s) we face dominate our thinking because we flounder in fear and uncertainty.  In his book Brave, Strong & Tender, Phil Downer asked, “Do you ever find yourself spending more time thinking about the size of your problems than thinking about the size of your God? Do you feel locked up because of fear?”

Meditation
Mark 10:51-52--Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
“Rabbouni,” the blind man told Him, “I want to see!”
 “Go your way,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has healed you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Him on the road.
 
Bartimaeus had a real, no-kidding problem.  He was blind. The crowd tried to silence him when he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (10:47). Crowds will be like that.  Don’t listen to them. Crowds fixate on rudeness and don’t understand blindness. Fortunately, Bart was not swayed by their flawed theology. He yelled louder because he was operating in faith. Consequently, when Jesus called him over, his whole life changed. 
            
I think sometimes we need to yell louder. We need to stop being constrained by our challenges and roar.  We need to remember that large crowds don’t bring healing—Jesus brings healing.  We need to operate by faith because faith lets us see!  
            
“Faith in God is a terrific venture in the dark; I have to believe that God is good in spite of all that contradicts it in my experience.”[1] Bartimaeus lived in the dark, yet he could believe in the Light. The hold of darkness is only arrested when in faith, we cry out, “I want to see!”

“The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance.”[2] We dare not let the voice of the crowd silence the voice in our hearts, or we will gain nothing at the cost of everything. The glory of sight for Bartimaeus was the ability to follow Jesus down the road. But he had to exercise his faith to get there. As O. Hallesby wrote in his book Prayer, “The essence of faith is to come to Christ.”

“Your faith has healed you.” The Holy Spirit breathes those words in us when we stop sitting by the side of the road wallowing in our struggle and resolve to call on our friend, Jesus. 

You can listen to my song Bartimaeus if you download the free software Spotify https://www.spotify.com/us/ and type the word Bartimaeus under song search. 
 
Inspiration
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.—Benjamin Franklin

 
©2022 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes, 12:10-The Teacher, sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)
 


[1] Oswald Chambers in Baffled to Fight Better. 
[2] Oswald Chambers in Notes on Isaiah
​