Week:    October 6 - 12, 2024

Read: Mark 10:46-47

Key Verse:     46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

I walk through North Station each week to take the commuter rail. I have noticed a man, the same man, sitting against the wall near one of the doors, week after week, begging for change. Whether I see him in the morning or in the evening, he’s sitting in the same place, doing the same thing. And when people give him change, he continues to sit, and ask for more change.

I began to consider how similar this man’s experience is to our walk as Christians. Often, when not-so-good things happen in our lives, we become blind and sit on the side of the road, in
darkness, and ask God for change. When the man asked me for change, I asked this question, “What will you do with the change?” He got up and walked away.

I then considered that sometimes, we can get to a place where it’s easier to beg for change, than to actually change ourselves. And this is a function of not exercising faith in the way we should. The vast majority of the messages I share are about faith and faith messages are great, but the not so-good thing is in as much as we hear it, we don’t apply it; hence, the reason many of us are sitting in darkness. Any time you sit in something beneath what God has for you, you are sitting in darkness. And to sit in darkness suggests that we have gotten comfortable with it, and really don’t expect it to change. And if you don’t expect it to change, it simply will not.

Scripture tells us that Blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus. When Bartimaeus is in the presence of Jesus, he receives his sight immediately and is changed forevermore. Some of us can get to a place where we holler, “JESUS,” and He grants our requests, but then, we go right back to same situations and people that are sometimes the reason/s we ended up in darkness in the first place. When the Lord steps in and changes your situation, don’t ask for more change, do something with the change he has given you.

Prayer: “Father God, please smile on me daily and help me to reflect on Your goodness. I praise You that I can do great things in my life, once you orchestrate a change in me. So, help me not to take any of Your changes for granted, In Jesus’ name. Amen"