Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Can't get no ... satisfaction

Friday, December 2, 2005

Matthew 9:27-29
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"

When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"

"Yes, Lord," they replied.

"Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; and their sight was restored.

The blind men just kept on coming. Outside they cried out to Jesus. He went inside. They followed him and cried out again. "Help me, help me!"

Jesus didn't heal every blind man and woman, and he didn't lift deafness from every person who could not hear. There were still plenty of crutches in use, perhaps new ones every day, as Jesus' ministry on earth wound its way around Israel.

Sometimes Jesus came upon those who received his healing touch; they didn't find him. In this case, though, the men sought Jesus out. They heard about the healer, they moved heaven and earth to find him, they didn't leave him alone. They believed he would change their lives. And Jesus did just that.

Jesus is the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the city on the hill. But even as he lived and walked and touched and loved, fallen people living in the fallen world continued to crank out babies and children and adults with disabilities and illnesses and selfishness. Desperate broken people, many of whom Jesus never saw.

I wonder if I am as insatiable as the world was and is and will be until its redemption. I don't want to be. I want to look at Jesus, know who he is, and receive the Holy Spirit. What healing and comfort I receive from God starts deep inside. The warmth and peace I feel doesn't make my leg longer, or my eyes open, or my cancer subside. It might, of course. And it might not.

It seems to me that to be broken in a broken world is part of the natural order of things. Why should I expect something different? Whatever healing I experience is at best temporary and incomplete. That's not what I need as God's child. What I need is to know who He is, and who I am, and to let myself be made fit just for that.

Jesus, change the way I see myself, and even more change how I see you. Remake my expectations, Lord. Build them up the way you want them to be built.

Devotions Archive

Can't get no ... satisfaction

Friday, December 2, 2005