I recently completed a Beth Moore study, and I must confess that I have felt a bit of a spirit of fear creep in. A little bit of worry that without that bible study to keep me grounded, I may quickly return to some areas of bondage. In my quite times, there has been just an eency bit too much quite, if you know what I mean. I am reading, I am praying, I am studying, and if I can quite my mind for long enough, I am listening, but I don’t seem to be hearing much. In fact, I have been feeling a little lost, and little blind, and little off course, and not knowing quite where to go or what to do.
This afternoon God brought to my mind the story told in John 9. This is the story where Jesus makes a paste out of spit and mud, and restores a blind man’s sight. I always thought this story was pretty cool, but never really thought about it until today. What is fascinating is that the blind man had no idea who Jesus was at the time of his healing. Can you imagine? Some strange man comes at you, spits in the dirt, plays in the mud, then slathers it on your eyes, and asks you to go wash it off, and tells you that you will be able to see.
Given that I know and believe that Jesus is the son of God, I would totally let him slather some mud on my eyeballs, but this man, he had no idea. He didn’t know Jesus from the man down the street. But being desperate for some healing, he had a willing heart that was open to new possibilities, and was willing to give it a try. And it worked! The man who had been blind from birth could see!
What a luxury we have, in that we are given the bible, given the very word of God, and invited to believe. We have the knowledge and the answers laid out before us in the Bible. All we need do is ask for him to come into our hearts, and he is ever so willing to rub some mud on our blinded-hurting-broken places, rinse them off with his shed blood on the cross, wash us crystal clean, and restore our sight again.
Near the end of the story, Jesus comes to the man, and asks him if he believes in the son of man. The man asks Jesus to point him out to him, not realizing that he is talking to the son of man himself. Jesus gently replies that he is looking right at him. The man then states that he believes and worships Jesus. When I was reading commentary on this, one statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Here it is. “Belief is not merely an intellectual assent to a proposition, but an attachment of trust to an individual as the one who comes from God.”
I am intellectual by nature, there is just something about me that has a hard time moving things from my head to my heart. But belief is so very much more than making an intellectual statement that, yes he is indeed the son of God. Belief is trusting him, attaching ourselves to him, because he is the ONE WHO COMES FROM GOD! It is looking at the one who healed us, who took our poor little blind souls and gave us sight, and not only saying “I believe” but falling to the ground and worshiping. Trusting him with all our heart, all our souls, and all our minds, because without his healing touch every single one of us live blind. He is the lover of your soul dear sister, even before you knew who he was, he loved you. Long before you trusted him, he was making the mud that would eventually provide for your sight, and preparing the waters that would wash you clean. Oh how he loves you dear one, wrap yourself up in his arms, attach yourself to him, trust him (for he did not give you a spirit of fear) and hang on for the ride. What amazing sights we will see.
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