Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer from Psalm 145:1 & 5:
I will exalt you, my God the King.
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
I will meditate on your wonderful works.
Show me Your glory in Your Word, I pray. Amen.
Reading
Speaking privately to His disciples about the man born blind, Jesus made it very clear that there is not a straight line between someone’s suffering and some individual sin that has been committed. But then, before they could waste even more time on theological debate, Jesus made the point that they should get to work solving the man’s problem instead of just theoretically analysing it. He said,
4 ‘As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me.’
Rather than debate the causes, Jesus was driven to do something positive about the man’s suffering. He spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. And then He put the ball in the blind man’s court. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’.
Now the man had a choice too. He could either argue the theory and theologise about how ridiculous and undignified all this mud was, and how this was too weird to be God’s will. But instead, he went away and did what Jesus had told him to do. And that day, the blind man “came home seeing”.
The challenge for us as disciples is to “do what Jesus commanded us to do” by laying aside our analysing, theorising and theologising and simply stepping out in obedience to do whatever we can do to respond to the needs and brokenness of the world around us. Forget what we can’t do. There is always something we can do to meet a need in the power of God, as we are led by the Spirit; even if it is apparently as crude and useless as making some mud. How encouraging it is that even mud can be used by Almighty God to fulfil His purpose. And if He can use mud, He can use us too.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will keep my eyes open for the needs Jesus wants me to do something about.
- I will stay sensitive to the Spirit’s prompting.
- I will do whatever I can in His power.
Lord Jesus, please infuse me with Your Spirit of Life today and use me to meet the needs of others in Your power. Amen.
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