As Christians, we can waste our lives standing on faith’s shoreline, never venturing beyond ankle-deep water. There we have little need for the Lord.
After all, we are safe on the beach, far from the danger of high waves and storms. But believers who release themselves into deeper waters of obedience need God desperately.
By casting oneself farther offshore, the Christian relinquishes control of his life. No longer can he pretend to determine his own fate, whether in regard to career choices, financial decisions, or church involvement. God is Captain of the boat, whereas the believer is the obedient first mate. Will storms come? Yes. Will the Captain at times make difficult requests? Yes. Will the first mate sometimes feel scared? Yes. But the surrendered believer experiences Christ more intimately than someone on shore can; he receives a boatload of God’s goodness and blessings.
Most churchgoers easily claim, “I’ve yielded my life to Christ.” To actually live out those words, however, is more difficult. We want to cling to a measure of control in case God doesn’t work events to our satisfaction. Too many Christians are content merely to dip their toes into faith because they fear life might not turn out according to their plan. But how much greater their loss will be if life doesn’t turn out according to God’s plan. He can do much more with a surrendered existence than a sheltered one.
The Christian life becomes exciting when we wade into water so deep that our feet no longer touch the bottom. Then we must stand on God’s promises.
Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” —John 8:11
The flashing lights of the police car drew my attention to a motorist who had been pulled over for a traffic violation. As the officer, ticket book in hand, walked back to his car, I could clearly see the embarrassed driver sitting helplessly behind the wheel of her car. With her hands, she attempted to block her face from the view of passersby—hoping to hide her identity. Her actions were a reminder to me of how embarrassing it can be when we are exposed by our choices and their consequences.
When a guilty woman was brought before Jesus and her immorality was exposed, the crowd did more than just watch. They called for her condemnation, but Jesus showed mercy. The only One with the right to judge sin responded to her failure with compassion. After dispatching her accusers, “Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more’” (John 8:11). His compassion reminds us of His forgiving grace, and His command to her points to His great desire that we live in the joy of that grace. Both elements show the depth of Christ’s concern for us when we stumble and fall.
Even in our most embarrassing moments of failure, we can cry out to Him and find that His grace is truly amazing. —Bill Crowder
Amazing grace—how sweet the sound—
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see. —Newton
Jesus alone can supply the grace we need for each trial we face.
What do you want me to do for you is a common enough question. It is implied in the question, how may I help you, used by store clerks and public servants. It could be asked by a clerk of a patron or between spouses in dialogue. It could be used casually between friends or spoken harshly in retort for misunderstanding. Whatever the context, it is a question of clarification. On the one hand, it seeks to clarify the expectations of the one to whom it is directed, and on the other hand, it seeks to clarify what action is required of the one who asks.
What do you want me to do for you is also the seemingly ordinary question asked by Jesus. It takes on a richer significance, however, as it is posed to the blind Bartimaeus and to the disciples of Jesus.(1) The gospel writers place the story of Bartimaeus immediately following a revealing exchange between Jesus and his disciples. But their answers to this question couldn’t be more different.
We do not know much about Bartimaeus. His name literally means, son of Timaeus. What we do know about persons with disabilities living in the first century is that they were completely dependent on the care and nurture of the society around them. Given that Bartimaeus is blind and given that he is begging on the street, it is likely that he had no living family members to care for him. Perhaps he heard that Jesus, the miracle worker, was coming down the street in his general direction because he cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
He didn’t just call out once, but made such a nuisance of himself that “many were sternly telling him to be quiet.” Yet, he refuses to comply and calls out all the more for the Messiah to have mercy upon him. Given the persistence of his cries for mercy and his debilitating condition, it seems a cruel irony for Jesus to ask, “What do you want me to do for you?” Couldn’t Jesus see his need? More important, didn’t he care?
Jesus, prior to walking in Bartimaeus’s direction, had just finished a conversation with his disciples, specifically with James and John who request that Jesus “do for us whatever we ask of you.”(2) Jesus had just described the way of the Messiah not as a political and military victor returning the fortunes of Israel, but as the way of suffering and death. He told them plainly of his own coming crucifixion. But the disciples did not understand. Instead, they argued about who would be the greatest in the Messianic kingdom. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they replied, “Grant that we may sit in your glory, one on your right and one on your left.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking for.” Jesus explained that to request glory in God’s kingdom is to request the way of the suffering servant. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Those readers and hearers of this text in the early Christian communities would not to miss the ironic juxtaposition of these two request narratives—one for mercy and the other for glory. Jesus asked Bartimaeus “What do you want me to do for you?” to make his request explicit for those disciples to hear. In asking for mercy, what is it that you want? The one who is blind asks in faith and believes that the mercy of Jesus will bring restoration and wholeness. He wants to be healed of his blindness so that his sight is literally restored, and that he is restored to his community. The text tells us that “immediately he regained his sight and began following after him on the road” (Mark 10:52). He became one of the many followers of Jesus. He became a disciple.
Yet those who were chosen as part of the twelve disciples asked for glory and honor. Jesus wants his disciples, blinded by their own ambition for glory and exaltation, to learn what it truly means to see and to follow as disciples. By asking, what do you want me to do for you, Jesus makes explicit their self-aggrandizing desires and the demands of discipleship.
What do you want me to do for you? The same question is asked of all who read and hear these texts. By posing this question to all who would seek mercy, or to be healed of blindness, we are invited to follow Jesus as disciples, even though “following after him on the road” might involve taking a way we would not choose for ourselves.
Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.
(1) The story of blind Bartimaeus is found in Matthew 20:29-34 and Mark 10:46-52. Luke 18:35-43 actually suggests that there were two blind men asking to be healed.
Untested faith may be true faith, but it is sure to be small faith, and it is likely to remain little as long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: Tempests are her trainers, and bolts of lightning are her illuminators.
When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship does not move to its harbor; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too.
Let the winds rush and howl, and let the waters lift themselves, though the vessel may rock and her deck may be washed with waves and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway toward her desired haven.
No flowers are as lovely a blue as those that grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam as brightly as those that glisten in the midnight sky; no water tastes as sweet as that which springs up in the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity.
Tested faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness if you had not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength if you had not been supported in the flood.
Faith increases in quality, assurance, and intensity the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too.
Do not let this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: The full portion will be measured out to you in due course.
Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have; praise Him for that degree of holy confidence you have now attained: Walk according to that rule, and you will still have more and more of the blessing of God, until your faith will remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.
You are not capable of performing the lowest act of the divine life, except as you receive strength from God the Holy Spirit. And surely, my brethren, it is generally in these little things that we find out most of all our weakness. Peter can walk the waves of the sea, but he cannot bear the derision of a little maid. Job can endure the loss of all things, but the upbraiding words of his false friends, though they be but words, and break no bones—make him speak far more bitterly than all the sore boils which were in his very skin. Jonah said he did well to be angry, even unto death, about a gourd. Have you not often heard that mighty men who have outlived hundreds of battles have been slain at last by the most trivial accident? And has it not been so with professed Christians? They stood uprightly in the midst of the greatest trials; they have outlived the most arduous struggles, and yet in an evil hour, trusting to themselves, their foot has slipped under some slight temptation, or because of some small difficulty. John Newton says: “The grace of God is as necessary to create a right temper in Christians on the breaking of a china plate as on the death of an only son.” These little leaks need the most careful stopping. The plague of flies is no more easy to be stayed than that of the destroying angel. In little as well as in great things the just must live by faith. In trifles as well as in nobler exercises the believer should be conscious of his own inability,—should never say of any act, “Now I am strong enough to perform this; I need not go to God in prayer about this; this is so little a thing.”
For meditation: We need to bring everything to God in prayer, not only the things which worry us (Philippians 4:6); the apostle Paul had learned how to face all situations and how to do all things in Christ who strengthened him (Philippians 4:13).
“He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
All who come to God in faith will receive the reward of eternal life.
We’ve seen that without faith it’s impossible to please God. And the first step in faith is believing that God exists. In addition, we must also believe that He answers our prayers–more specifically, that He redeems those who come to Him in faith.
Scripture repeatedly tells us that God not only can be found, but also desires to be found. David said to his son Solomon, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chron. 28:9). The Lord says in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jesus said, “Everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened” (Luke 11:10).
At first glance those verses may seem to contradict Paul’s teaching that “there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside” (Rom. 3:11-12), and Jesus’ statement that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). But really they’re two sides of the same theological coin.
On one side you see man believing God and receiving Christ for salvation. On the other you see God enabling man to do so. Prior to salvation, a person is spiritually dead and utterly incapable of responding to the gospel. God must grant him or her saving faith. That’s why the Bible contains statements like, “To you it has been granted for Christ’s sake . . . to believe in Him” (Phil. 1:29); “As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48); and “The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14).
God is the Great Rewarder, extending His love and grace to all who call upon Him. “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed” (Rom. 10:11).
Suggestions for Prayer:
If you’ve been praying for someone’s salvation, don’t become discouraged. Only God can grant saving faith, but He gives us the privilege of participating in His redemptive work through faithful prayer and evangelism (Rom 10:1).
Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.—Proverbs 3:5–6
I usually know what I want, and I like to get it. I’m exactly like most people. When we don’t get what we want, our negative feelings flare up. (And remember those feelings began with thoughts.)
“I drove across town to buy that dress, and you’re out of my size?”
“What do you mean there are no HD-TVs left? You advertised it in the paper.” Most of us are like that—and when we don’t get what we want, we make people around us miserable. It’s not something we learn in school—it may be inborn.
As I wrote the above quotations, I thought of a scene in the grocery store. A young mother was pushing her cart along and stopped at the cereal. Her child—less than two years old—reached out for a box. “Want! Want!”
“No,” the mother said. “We have plenty at home.” She put a different box of cereal in the cart.
“Want! Want!” the child said. Getting no response, she began to kick and scream. To the mother’s credit, she did not give in but pushed the cart to another aisle and distracted her child.
As I watched that behavior, I thought, That’s the way we all are most of the time. We decide what we want, and when we don’t get it, we’re angry.
“Jack and I were both up for the same promotion. I’ve been with the company longer, and my sales figures are stronger,” Donna said. “I deserved it, but he got the job.”
“I had a grade of 98 going into my final essay test,” Angie said. “If I had made another 100, it would have given me a 4.0 average, and I would have become the top student in my graduating class. But I made only 83 on the test, and dropped down to fifth in my class. I deserved a grade of 100, but my teacher doesn’t like me.”
Let’s look at this problem more closely. The individuals mentioned above, who didn’t get what they wanted, made one common statement: “I deserved it, but I didn’t get it.”
Too often, we Christians expect life to be perfect and for everything to go smoothly for us. We expect success, happiness, joy, peace, and everything else. When we’re thwarted, we pout or complain.
Although God does want us to have a good life, there will be times when we must be patient and endure not getting our way. These disappointments test our character and level of spiritual maturity. They actually show whether or not we truly are ready for promotion.
Why do we think we should always be first while others have to endure a lesser position? Why do we think we are entitled to the perfect life? Perhaps sometimes we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. A humble mind enables us to take a back seat and wait for God to move us to the front. God’s Word says that we inherit the promises through faith and patience. Believing God is good, but can we continue to believe God and trust Him when we don’t feel that life is fair?
Satan plays with our minds. Most of the time, the evil one says negative things to us: “You don’t deserve it; you are worthless; you’re stupid.” Once in a while, however, he tries a different trick: He tells us how hard we work or how much we’re entitled to. If we listen and believe, we may begin to feel cheated or believe that someone has taken advantage of us.
When we don’t get what we want, we fall apart, saying, “I deserved it!” We not only get angry with the boss, the teacher, or anyone else, but we sometimes get angry with God for not giving us what we felt we deserved.
The big mistake was to say we deserved it, because then self-pity creeps in when we don’t get what we want. We can take that attitude, or we can recognize that we have a choice. I can choose to accept life the way it is and make the best out of it, or I can complain because it isn’t perfect.
I think of the story of Jonah—not the whale story—but what happened afterward. He had announced that in forty days, God would destroy the city of Nineveh, but the people repented. Because God listened to their cries, Jonah was angry. “Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech You, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3).
Sad, isn’t it? Jonah would rather have been right than to see 120,000 people saved. Our situations aren’t usually that dramatic, but so many people would rather sit and feel sorry for themselves, listen to the whispers of Satan, and miss out with God than to simply trust God in every situation.
The secret of the Christian life is that we commit ourselves fully to God. If we surrender our wills to God, what happens doesn’t make us angry. If God doesn’t give us what we want and ask for, our faith is strong enough to say, “Not my will, but Yours.”
God, help me. I often have strong desires, and when I don’t get what I want, I get upset. Forgive me. Remind me that Jesus didn’t want to die on the cross, but He lived in total submission to Your will. I ask You, through Jesus Christ, to help me live in total submission and be content with what You give me. Amen.
“Love does no wrong to anyone. That’s why it fully satisfies all of God’s requirements. It is the only law you need” (Romans 13:10).
Early in my Christian life, I was troubled over the command to love God so completely, as I mentioned in yesterday’s reading. How could I ever measure up to such a high standard? Then He showed me how to love by faith.
We are to love God. We are to love our neighbors. We are to love our enemies. We are to love our family members. And we are to love ourselves with God’s kind of love, by faith.
Since the greatest commandment is to love God, we are to give Him our first love, never allowing anyone or anything to come before Him. And supernaturally, we are to express the agape kind of love to others – a love no less in its quality and magnitude than that which we express toward God.
In the same way, God loves all His children perfectly. He loves you and me just as much as He loves His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:23).
The person who has not yet learned to love God and to seek Him above all else and all others is to be pitied. Such a person is only denying himself the blessings that await all who love God with all their heart, soul and mind.
It is natural for us to fulfill the command to love our neighbors as ourselves if we truly love God in the way mentioned above. If we are properly related to God, vertically, we will be properly related to our fellow man, horizontally.
Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 13
TODAY’S ACTION POINT: By faith I will claim God’s love – for Him, for my neighbors, for myself, for my enemies – and as a result do only good, which is a result of supernatural living
D.L. Moody was not well-educated and often spoke with bad grammar. Yet Moody was always passionate about his relationship with God. Many times he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable. However, Moody knew nothing was too hard for the Lord, and that through prayer anything could be accomplished. A man once said to Moody, “The world has yet to see what God can do through a man wholly committed to Him.” Moody replied, “By the grace of God, I’ll be that man.” As a result, he preached to large crowds throughout America and Europe – and thousands of people invited Jesus Christ into their lives.
Many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
II Corinthians 1:11
The Bible says, “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) That doesn’t mean constantly repeating routine phrases in order to get something from God. It’s a continuous communication which comes from your heart so you can experience a deeper intimacy with the Creator of the Universe.
Thank your Heavenly Father every day for the gift and privilege of prayer. As you intercede for America’s leaders, pray they will experience the freedom and joy that comes only from a relationship with Him.
Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. —Psalm 40:5
One of my favorite verses about what God says concerning the future is Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Contextually these words were given to the Israelites while they were in captivity in Babylon. They saw no future. They thought they would be captives forever. But God was saying, “No, actually not forever. It will last for seventy years. I warned you. You kept turning to idols. And now you are reaping what you have sown. But one day you will get out of Babylon. You will return to your homeland. So I know the thoughts I think toward you, . . . thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
I love that for so many reasons. For one, notice that God doesn’t say, “I know the thought I once had toward you.” I don’t know about you, but the realization that God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, would have a single thought about me would be more than enough. Just one thought. Just one! I thought about Greg. I am done with him now. I am on to other things. But He did think about me for a moment. And He says, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you”—more than one.
Also, they are thoughts of peace, not of evil. They are good thoughts to give you a future and a hope. The word future in Jeremiah 29:11 also could be translated “an expected end” or “a ground of hope” or “things hoped for.” There will be an outcome.
God’s will for you is far better than your plans for yourself. Will you believe that?
The Bible says in Romans 8:28 that “in everything God works for the good of those who love Him.” Do this simple exercise. Remove the word everything and replace it with the symbol of your tragedy. How would Romans 8:28 read in your life?
In hospital stays God works for the good.
In divorce papers God works for the good.
As hard as it may be to believe, you could be only a Saturday away from a resurrection. Hours from that precious prayer of a changed heart. “God, you did this for me?”
Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, Paul said. “The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope.” (Romans 15:4).
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