We sit in a circle and Johnathan tells the story from Luke and I can't get the picture out of my mind - the blind beggar sitting by the side of the road and the crowds waiting for Jesus and him calling out "Son of David, have mercy on me."
The crowds tell him, "Be quiet." But he's a beggar and beggars persist.
"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asks.
"Lord, let me recover my sight." The blind man gets right to the point.
"Restore your sight," Jesus says. "You faith has made you well."
So I ask, "What is the Lord telling me in this?"
Jesus didn't need the beggar to call out to Him to know that the beggar was there or that he was blind - but He responded to the beggar's persistence, and though Jesus must has known the beggar's need, He still asked him to acknowledge it, "What do you want me to do for you?"
And what I wonder is this - was the faith that healed the beggar his belief that Jesus could restore his sight? Many faithful Christians know and believe God can heal them, yet their health has not been restored.
Or maybe the most important lesson in this story is not that God heals and that faith will always bring the healing we ask for in faith, but that the man was a humble beggar and his persistence in ignoring the crowd and calling out for Jesus was the measure of faith to which Jesus responded.
And I think God is telling me I need to be more like that humble beggar - not that I be healed, but that I ignore the shouts from the crowd {the world's solutions to the things I need} and be persistence {not anxious - but trusting that He knows what is best for me} in seeking the Lord in all things - that this will be the measure of my faith that He knows.
What about you? What do you believe about faith and healing and what the Lord is saying in this story from Luke?
{Photos - the beautyberry beginning to blossom in the corner of our backyard}
