Seeing God Today
Have you ever felt like you couldn’t see God? In John 9, we meet a man who was born blind. While others were seeing the miracles of Jesus, watching Him and following Him, this man saw nothing. That is, nothing until Jesus touched his eyes and opened them. After this miraculous healing took place, the man was brought in for questioning by the religious leaders. He didn’t shy away from declaring the truth of the healing he had experienced. The religious leaders didn’t like that, and they threw him out.
But this man’s journey with Jesus wasn’t over. After hearing that the religious leaders cast him out, Jesus sought him out and asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35 NIV). A term used as a name for the Messiah, the man asks Jesus who the Son of Man is. Jesus responds, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you” (John 9:37 ESV).
Jesus is telling this man that He Himself is the Messiah. In one glorious miracle, this man goes from being lost in blindness to not only seeing the world around him, but seeing the Messiah Himself.
There are times in life where all of us are blind. Maybe we can’t see with our physical eyes. Maybe we’re walking with God, but are struggling to see His hand in our everyday lives. Or maybe we aren’t walking with God yet, and are therefore living in darkness. This story shows us how Jesus wants to open our eyes. He wants to help us see.
Oftentimes, our transformation depends on what we’re looking at. Every time we open God’s Word, we have the opportunity to see Jesus. Truly looking at Jesus will transform all of us. Like the man given sight, we too can attest to the healing hand of God in our life.
The great news? Jesus is as invested in our transformation as we are.
Every day, keep your eyes on Him. God is faithful to reveal Himself to us. If you look for Him, you will find Him.
Power, Love, and Discipline
One of the miracles of salvation is that when we have faith in Christ, God not only saves us—He also gives us the power to live according to His will. Your life in Christ is one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit living within you.
This is a great gift, but a big shift. It often takes time to change how we think and act. We may have bad habits that take hard work to correct, or patterns of thought that are challenging to break.
Thankfully, God promises to be with us and to empower us to make these changes in our life. When Paul is writing to his mentee Timothy, he encourages him to continue to develop the gift that God has given to him. While we are saved in an instant, it takes a lifetime to develop and work out what God is doing inside of us.
Paul reminds Timothy that God’s Spirit does not give us fear or cowardice. Those things are tools of the devil who is trying to keep us from God. But the Spirit of God empowers us with confidence in Him. He gives us the ...