30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 18 35-43 THE FAITH OF BARTIMAEUS 13 God’s wellness amid the sorrows
📖 Luke 18:35-43
12Nov2020 - *God’s wellness amid the sorrows* - _Luke 18:35-43_ - THE FAITH OF BARTIMAEUS 13 – Bible reading: _Isaiah 42:16-17_
_Luke 18:43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God._
God’s word and Bartimaeus’ faith had produced a miracle. Bartimaeus was first healed of his internal blindness and now he was healed of his physical blindness.
He received his sight immediately. All of us can testify to the healing and miracles of God in our lives. Sometimes it has been instantaneous and at other times the healing has happened over some time.
The Lord longs for us to live in the continuous experience of the wellness of God. I’m not saying that we will not have any problems or difficulties in life but we can have the continuous experience of the Shalom of God, even in the crisis and challenges that we go through in life.
The Jews, as we have said earlier, were expecting the Messiah to come and establish His kingdom rule, here on earth, where the life of wellness or the Shalom of God would be a reality. When it did not look like Jesus was going to declare Himself as King and establish His kingdom, even John the Baptist, who came as the forerunner of Jesus, began to doubt if Jesus was the Christ.
_Matthew 11:3-6 and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" (4) Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: (5) The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (6) And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."_
Jesus had come, to go to the cross, but even while He was persisting towards Jerusalem and to the cross, He provided the experience of the kingdom of God to people. This was what he explained to the disciples of John.
We too are living in difficult times and we look ahead, at the future, with foreboding. We know that the Lord will come and establish the fullness of the rule of His eternal kingdom but even as we await His return, we do experience the wellness of God, here and now.
The kingdom life is for those who have placed their faith and trust in God, just as Bartimaeus did, and are living in the habitat of God. Those who have placed their trust in money or any of the other gods of this world are going to be greatly bewildered in these end times.
This has been the effective strategy that the devil has deployed on the church. We made minor deviations in our choices in life. We told ourselves, should we not look after ourselves and make choices for our families, our careers, our jobs, our wellbeing, our comforts, our security and our future?
We made several choices on these lines and we backed ourselves by quoting verses that suited us. We don’t like to own up, but we have made materialism our god. This has happened very subtly and we never realised that the devil has deceived us and sucked us into his trap.
_Isaiah 42:16-17 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them. (17) They shall be turned back, They shall be greatly ashamed, Who trust in carved images, Who say to the moulded images, 'You are our gods.'_
It is those who trust in God, as Bartimaeus did, who will experience the wellness of God. Those who profess to trust God but their trust, in reality, is on mammon, in its different embodiments, will be in confusion and dread.
Our task as the church is to encourage one another to place our faith on Him, in these end times. Let us be assured that even as we pass through frightening times, we will experience the wellness of God as streams in the desert.
_Isaiah 35:3-6 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. (4) Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." (5) Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. (6) Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert._
*Thought to ponder*
```Is your faith on Jesus or …?```