Bible
Study: Isaiah 29, 17 to 24. And Matthew 9, 27 to 31.
Of all the
sicknesses that a man can suffer, none is as devastating as blindness. If all
you can see is darkness, then things only exist in your imagination and you
rely on the help of others to understand what is happening around you. However,
as bad as physical blindness may be, spiritual blindness is even worse. And
this is the sickness affecting modern man today. People are not able to relate
with God because they are completely blind to his existence, blind to his
commandments and blind to his intervention in our day to day lives.
Inability to
enter into a solid faith-based relationship with God is what is responsible for
the many evils that we see happening in our society and even among those of us
who go to church. How? The Psalmist declares: “Thy word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.” Psalm 119, verse 105. This means failure to follow God’s
word is our lives is like one walking without a lamp in a dark place. But how
many of us pattern our lives according to God’s word? Do we read the Bible as a
guide for daily living or simply as a book of entertainment? St. Peter having
understood what it means for a Christian to be living in darkness declares “…You
will do well to pay attention to this (God’s word), as to a lamp shining in a
dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 2nd
Peter 1 verse 19.
It is
blindness on our part when we steal public funds and deprive others of enjoying
that which is rightfully theirs. It is blindness when our dustbins are richer
than the kitchen of others. It is blindness when we engage in pursuit of wealth
without conscience, power without justice, pleasure without morality, fame
without integrity, success without hard work. It is blindness when we live in a
world of our own, totally insensitive to the sufferings of others and
constantly turning the other way when we see people in need. It is blindness
when we build our security on what we have thinking that without these material
things, we cannot survive. It is blindness when we would rather disobey God’s
commands than part with some material benefit or human favour.
It is
blindness when we engage in prayer and still expect the worst to happen. Yes,
it is blindness to worship God and yet lack the faith that he is capable doing
anything significant in our lives. It is blindness when we fail to thank him
even for the many good things that we enjoy assuming we were just lucky to have
them or that it is because of our hard work and intelligence. It is blindness to
believe more in human help than in divine help, blindness to assume that
prayers only amount to nothing just because we do not see immediate and
spectacular results as magicians make us believe. It is blindness if we are not
able to engage God in daily meditation and hear directly from him, blindness if
we can only depend on our pastors or on others to tell us what God is saying,
blindness when we are not sure if God actually exist or assume that everything concerning
Church is just waste of time.
Jesus has
come to heal us of the disease of blindness. True to the words of Isaiah, Jesus
is the one who has come to take away the veil from our eyes. He asked the two
blind men in today’s Gospel passage, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
Jesus is asking us that same question today. Do you believe? If you really
believe, then let your actions display your faith. If you really believe, then
call out to him today “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” Get close to him
and let him take charge of your inner life.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, open my eyes that I may see. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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