rebuked – Praying Pint

34.o. “Lord, let our eyes be opened so that we may follow you”

Matthew 20:29 And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.

These blind men had no hope of seeing. They were blind and no human effort would ever give them their sight back. They knew this. There was no doubt about it. They were, as it was, lost in their blindness and only a helping stick or another person could guide them. How would they know if a person giving them help was true in this help? They had no other hope and would have to rely upon this as a means to get through life. Any dangers one would normally see with their eyes and avoid would require others to keep them on a path free from danger or harm. Now they hear of Jesus walking by, and no doubt they had heard of His miracles, and they cry out; “have mercy on us”. They are rebuked by the crowd for they must have been loud and desperate in their pleas. Jesus asks, “what is it you want me to do?” “Open our eyes” is the reply. People in the crowd told them to be quiet – they rebuked the blind men. Is it possible that these people saw no hope for these men’s condition and that their cries for mercy were nothing more than an unwelcome cry in the wilderness? Such it is with man. They will see the sinful condition of a person and say there is no hope for them, but with God all things are possible.

How many times did Jesus speak of people being blind to things of God and about those who, being blind, would lead others – the blind leading the blind? When God opens the eyes and softens, as it were, a blind person’s heart and they become aware of the things of God, namely the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they will intentionally choose to either cry out, “have mercy on me” or continue in their blindness. I know it happens but for the life of me I can’t figure out how a person makes this choice. I do know that when God opened my eyes and heart to the gospel, I knew that I was lost and without hope, “blind”, and that if I called out and trusted and believed in Him, He would save me from this blindness and give me eternal life sight. As I say this it occurs to me that I don’t know how many times in my life I may have rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ and chose to live blind and not even know it. I do know that when my ears and eyes to my heart and mind were opened to the Gospel, I fully understood my hopeless, blind, and lost condition. Though I did not cry out, I did humbly cry out from the depths of my heart and mind and sought and desired redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life. At that moment I trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ. The eyes to my heart and mind, as it were, were made new. I could see. I was given new life, born again. No longer blind to things of God. I was no longer a blind orphan but rather an unblinded child of God.

How is a person, blind to things of God, to find their sight when so many in this world try to guide them away from it, even telling them that they are not blind? By us proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and living a life that honors and glorifies Jesus Christ in all we say think and do. We are to be guides that points and directs others to healing for their spiritually blinded hearts, minds, and souls.

Oh, that we did know of our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by his grace opens men’s eyes, and so draws their hearts after him. (Henry)

Now is the day of salvation and if the eyes to your heart and mind have been opened to see the Gospel, humbly surrender, repent, trust, follow, and rely upon Jesus Christ and you will be given sight – new eyes, new ears, new mind, and new heart with which you will find grace, mercy, joy, peace, refuge, courage, hope, faith, love, and rest in the promise of redemption, forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.

33.y. “Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 17:14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

You have to wonder if the disciples felt a hesitation concerning their own ability, and this is the reason they lacked faith. It is the bane of every person to infuse and confuse faith with their own ability. Faith alone, period. Not faith plus my ability – faith alone. It is hard to surrender or cause to die those feelings of reliance in (and on) self, and even more so when the object or desire of our faith relies solely on the will and grace of God alone. We read the rebuke by Jesus to the disciples and their true desire to understand why they could not cast out the demon from this man’s son. “If you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed” (very small – about 10x the width of a human hair). Jesus is saying, faith, when it is set apart from all earthly and self ability can accomplish anything and everything – in line with God’s sovereignty, purpose, and will. As I write this I also wonder how this true “faith” is grown, flourished, and applied. I believe it is when a person continues to grow in their walk with Jesus Christ. Day by day they continue to die to self and learn to yield and rely upon God alone. As we continue to seek and desire to honor and glorify Jesus Christ in all we think, say, and do it is then our faith in self-reliance dies and Jesus reliance grows. Scripture says God can do more than we ask and much more than we can imagine. Faith (no matter how small that pure faith is) in Him alone who is limitless will accomplish God’s will and purpose. We must also leave room in our faith for God’s will and His timing. The three friends of Daniel said, “Oh King, our God is able to deliver us from your decree of being thrown into the fiery furnace, but even if He does not we will not bow down to your statue.” There are times I am sure our faith is pure and in line with God’s Word, but is not in line with His will, purpose, and timing. In these times we must be content with our prayer being in the hands of our Creator.

92. Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Job 6:4     For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

Job 19:6    know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.

Psalms 73:14    For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

Psalms 88:15    Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.

Job 11:7     “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

We see Naomi having a very rough time in her life. Both son’s and her husband have died. When I read this it is hard to think of anything but sadness, despair, and loneliness. Who can fully know what God knows or what His plans and purposes are? We can only trust what Romans 8:28 says “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”.

Without faith, it is hard to see the good God has planned for one person at what seems like the expense of another. God is the creator, almighty, all-powerful, and sovereign God. His plans are never wrong. His purposes are never wrong. His power is never used wrongly.

Life has birth and death. The time in between is filled with trials, troubles, and blessings. Just as we do not escape death we will not escape the trials and troubles of this life. The key here is not to face them alone or apart from God. Faith in His love, grace, mercy, strength, power, plans, purposes and sovereignty will guide us through these times. In times of trials and troubles, we don’t need to know why but rather “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”

“Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”

Exodus 14:10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Isaiah 7:2     When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

Matthew 8:26    And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

1 John 4:18     There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

It is hard to deny fear coming into our lives. Sudden fear at an impending outcome takes over and that is all we can think about. All of the negative outcomes. All of the worst possible scenarios. All the bad and troubling things we think are awaiting our downfall.

The Israelites looked up and saw a massive well armed army approaching, they were hemmed in by the sea and no way of retreat. The first thing they did was fear, then they cried out to the Lord, then they lost all hope. They then spoke to Moses “What have you done?” “Didn’t we tell you to leave us alone?”

It is important to note human nature in responses to this crisis immediately after they had witnessed many miraculous wonders, signs and power of God over many days. Staff into a snake, river into blood, frogs, gnats, flies, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and firstborn deaths were all witnessed by the people. It was not at the word of one to another, they all saw the Mighty work of God. And, yet, they still fell into fear, doom, gloom, blaming, and hopelessness.

Think back in your life. Are you any different? Do you give up on seeing the Mighty hand of God work? Do you even want to be in a situation where you see it? Having any easy life does not do us any favors when it comes to serving God. In fact it actually takes you down a path that sees no need for God in everyday life. It places God on a back burner for sometime in the future when needed.

Our lives are to be set apart to seek and desire to humbly serve, honor, glorify, worship, praise, follow, and obey Him. It is sad to say, but fully true “We are weak and pitiful followers. We lack intentional commitment, earnest desire, and the want to be in His presence.” It seems as though we not only want, but expect, Him to be watching over us and bubble wrapping our lives from trials and trouble, without giving Him a second thought throughout the day.

If you do not have an ever present desire to seek to honor Him, how is it that you will know of His promises, power, might, strength, peace, joy, and hope when trials and trouble come?

We never know when God’s plans and purposes for our life will include trials and trouble. We do well to be intentionally walking closely to Him, always seeking and desiring to hear His whispers and see His might work in our life.

Oh to be walking so closely to Him that in the face of trails and almost certain major unfavorable outcome we can speak like :Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.”

When doubts and fear cloud your day, remember to continually say over and over again; “My God is able to do more than the trial and trouble before me. If He chooses to not show His mighty hand, I still will not fear. I can rest in His loving hands and know I am in His perfect plan.”

By your blood

Psalms 103:4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

Psalms 34:22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Psalms 56:13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Psalms 71:23 My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.

Job 33:19-30 “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food. His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death. If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’; then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness. He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’ “Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.

Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

2 Corinthians 4:16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

To have sins forgiven is more important than physical healing. What does it profit the soul to have perfect or good health if the soul is rotting away? We tend to put blinders on when it comes to the health of our soul. It is understandable why this can happen. We can see and feel our physical state. Our physical body is designed to let us know something is not right. We feel pain. We see the effects of something not being right. Sometimes it is others who see it. When it comes to our soul, how are we to know? The word of God. In and through His word we are able to gain understanding of His holiness and our sinfulness. His word is a light into our soul. His word exposes the cancer that is eating away our soul. His word brings healing to our soul. Physical health has benefit for this life but spiritual health of our soul has benefit for eternity.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

I will not be afraid

Psalms 91:5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

Psalms 3:6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

Psalms 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

Psalms 46:2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

Psalms 112:7 He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.

Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Matthew 8:26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Hebrews 13:6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Proverbs 3:23 Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,

Psalms 32:6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

I will not be afraid!! or will I? It is easy to say this when you are not in the heat of a troubling issue or event. Note in verse Psalms 32:6 “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him“. Staying close to God, knowing His promises, believing them, and trusting in His power, might, strength, hope, love, mercy and grace is a way of life. It is not something that gets turned on and off like a switch. His word is the food which feeds our heart, mind, and soul. His word is what gives peace and fuels our faith. He can do more than we ask and so much more than we can imagine. Oh God help my unbelief!!!

from Charles Spurgeon:

They shall not be afraid of the “plagues which in the darkness walk.” Nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. Famine may starve, or bloody war devour, earthquake may overturn and tempest may smite, but amid all, the man who has sought the mercy seat and is sheltered beneath the wings which overshadow it, shall abide in perfect peace. Days of horror and nights of terror are for other men, his days and nights are alike spent with God, and therefore pass away in sacred quiet. His peace is not a thing of times and seasons, it does not rise and set with the sun, nor does it depend upon the healthiness of the atmosphere or the security of the country. Upon the child of the Lord’s own heart pestilence has no destroying power, and calamity no wasting influence: pestilence walks in darkness, but he dwells in light; destruction wastes at noonday, but upon him another sun has risen whose beams bring restoration. Remember that the voice which saith “thou shalt not fear” is that of God himself, who pledges his word for the safety of those who abide under his shadow, nay, not for their safety only, but for their serenity. So far shall they be from being injured that they shall not even be made to fear the ills which are around them, since the Lord protects them.