Mark Devotionals
[Please do read the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]
“Your faith has healed you.” We sometimes think that means we need to have “x units” (or some God-calculated quantity) of faith in order to make things happen for us. But the Bible is clear about the fact that nothing we can do makes things work in our favor. Grace means that it is all God’s initiative, all His work; and He does it purely based on His love for us, and not on what have done/can do for Him. So what about blind Bartimaeus? I believe Jesus did heal him by his power, because of his love for him. But Jesus also wanted Bartimaeus to desire something he could not do himself, which only God (Jesus) could do for/to him. In a way, that is faith, because it is desiring the impossible from the only One that can make it happen. However, will God give us every impossible, faith-filled desire, like he did Bartimaeus’? Not necessarily. But with each of those desires comes a dependency on a loving God who surely reciprocates with a love that meets us at the point of our need, even if not always in the way we want.
Prayer: Lord, give me the faith to keep desiring the best that you have in store for me. I know that I may not always get what I want. But the more I desire from you, the more I will learn to depend on you for what is best for my life. I know you are a God of love. Your giving of Jesus for me shows me that if you did not spare your only Son, you will surely not hold back anything else that is good for me. So I will keep desiring of you, and asking you, my Lord, because only you have what I really need. And if I have to learn to wait, give the patience to be faithful even in the waiting. Amen.
