Encounters with Jesus #5
Have you ever been ‘blanked’ by someone? You know, completely ignored?
[Someone say something! Don’t ignore me! hehehe]
Not only is it hurtful and insulting, but it generate a certain amount of paranoia – you start to analyse your every action, trying to establish a possible reason! Your head begins to spin; why would someone ignore you!!!
Now here’s a horrifying thought: Imagine Jesus blanking you!
After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”
“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! (Matt 9:27-29 NLT)
The faith of these two men can encourage us today; they can almost represent us. Like them we cannot see Jesus either. We may hear evidence of his nearness just as these guys did, they could hear the cries of grief turning into joy and tears into giggles as children began to play. However, despite this they could not see him; they had no evidence for themselves that Jesus was there to influence their life.
Does this echo something deep inside you?
We hear about testimonies of people being healed etc, real life miracles, but it is not happening to us. We may be in a meeting where people all around us are ‘feeling the presence of God’ but you sense nothing. What do you do? Maintain a religious face so that no-one sees how much it hurts you inside not experiencing what everyone else has?
Questions creep in: Did people really encounter Jesus? Why would Jesus ignore me, what have I done?
Our ability to reason a response to these questions is often fogged by emotion, doubt and guilt. Our only hope is to throw faith on them because it is faith they are attacking.
Our blind friends in Matt 9 did not just sit by as Jesus ignored their loud cries. They got up, carried on shouting and followed the crowd even though they had no reason to believe that Jesus was at the head of the crowd or that he had any desire to heal them (after if he did want to heal them why didn’t he when they first called out to him?!).
Faith becomes unstoppable when we decide to pursue Jesus even when all we feel is emptiness.
Why did Jesus ignore the cries of these blind men? Was he testing their faith? Was he increasing it? Was it something else? We are never going to know because this is their story – between them and God – but it does serve to encourage us. It is hard to understand or appreciate the way in which God responds to us at times, especially when it seems like He is ignoring us, but God never tries to destroy our faith; everything God does is to strengthen and develop it.
Keep yelling, even when there is no response.
Keep following, even in the darkness.
Burn with faith, so that when the question comes you can respond with certainty.
“Do you believe I can make you see?”
[Someone say something! Don’t ignore me! hehehe]
Not only is it hurtful and insulting, but it generate a certain amount of paranoia – you start to analyse your every action, trying to establish a possible reason! Your head begins to spin; why would someone ignore you!!!
Now here’s a horrifying thought: Imagine Jesus blanking you!
After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”
“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! (Matt 9:27-29 NLT)
The faith of these two men can encourage us today; they can almost represent us. Like them we cannot see Jesus either. We may hear evidence of his nearness just as these guys did, they could hear the cries of grief turning into joy and tears into giggles as children began to play. However, despite this they could not see him; they had no evidence for themselves that Jesus was there to influence their life.
Does this echo something deep inside you?We hear about testimonies of people being healed etc, real life miracles, but it is not happening to us. We may be in a meeting where people all around us are ‘feeling the presence of God’ but you sense nothing. What do you do? Maintain a religious face so that no-one sees how much it hurts you inside not experiencing what everyone else has?
Questions creep in: Did people really encounter Jesus? Why would Jesus ignore me, what have I done?
Our ability to reason a response to these questions is often fogged by emotion, doubt and guilt. Our only hope is to throw faith on them because it is faith they are attacking.
Our blind friends in Matt 9 did not just sit by as Jesus ignored their loud cries. They got up, carried on shouting and followed the crowd even though they had no reason to believe that Jesus was at the head of the crowd or that he had any desire to heal them (after if he did want to heal them why didn’t he when they first called out to him?!).
Faith becomes unstoppable when we decide to pursue Jesus even when all we feel is emptiness.
Why did Jesus ignore the cries of these blind men? Was he testing their faith? Was he increasing it? Was it something else? We are never going to know because this is their story – between them and God – but it does serve to encourage us. It is hard to understand or appreciate the way in which God responds to us at times, especially when it seems like He is ignoring us, but God never tries to destroy our faith; everything God does is to strengthen and develop it.
Keep yelling, even when there is no response.
Keep following, even in the darkness.
Burn with faith, so that when the question comes you can respond with certainty.
“Do you believe I can make you see?”
-Andrew Carey
posted by Andrew at 8:53 am
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