“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” (Mark 10:52)
In this passage, Jesus healed a blind man named Bartimaeus. If you’ve spent any time reading the gospels, you know Jesus healed a lot of people. In fact, there are some 31 specific recorded healings by Jesus.
On top of this, there are occasions, like Matthew described, “…and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them.” (Matthew 15:30) So we don’t know how many people Jesus healed, but there were a lot.
Of the specific healings mentioned, the most common was for blindness. In fact, we’re told of six individuals who were blind that Jesus healed. What’s most interesting to me is that each of these people were healed in different ways. Here, Jesus simply just spoke healing. In John 9, Jesus made mud with his saliva and put it on the man’s eyes. In another encounter, Jesus used clay. In another, he cast out a demon.
Here’s my point: Don’t put God in a box!
Haven’t you found this to be true…every time you think you have God figured out, he does something different? It’s true in my own prayer life. Maybe you don’t, but I have a tendency to tell God what I need and then proceed to tell him how to do it. Apparently, God doesn’t need my help.
The reality is that when we put God in a box, we don’t really limit him – since he’s limitless – we actually limit our own faith. When we can let God be God and let him do his own thing, we can truly engage our faith.
Join us Sunday and we’ll look at this great passage and learn some more principles of growing our faith in my series, “How Firm a Foundation.” I hope to see you then!
