Devotion for Thursday, August 17, 2023

Scripture: Luke 18:35-42

As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. 36 Hearing a crowd passing by, he inquired what was happening. 37 “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him.

38 So he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! ” 39 Then those in front told him to keep quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me! ”

40 Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you? ”

“Lord,” he said, “I want to see.”

42 “Receive your sight,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has saved you.” 43 Instantly he could see, and he began to follow him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. — Luke 18:35-43 (CSB)

Thought:

In reading about the healing of a blind man near Jericho, whom Mark identifies as Bartimaeus, we can not different details by checking out Luke’s and Matthew’s accounts of this. For example, Matthew mentions two blind men (Mt. 20:29-34), and that they both followed him. We can deduce that Bartimaeus was the more prominent of the two, being mentioned by name in Mark’s gospel. In reading Luke’s account, we have the additional detail that “he began to follow him glorifying God.” He also mentions that the people gave praise to God. This is an important natural extension of receiving a miracle from our Lord. We should glorify and give praise to Him.

This little detail gives a fuller picture of the event. The man would naturally rejoice in receiving his sight and it would make sense that the crowd of Jesus-followers would do the same. Praising His name is a natural and obvious result of receiving any gift from God. When we receive new life from Him, our natural response should be to give praise to Him in all we do. If we have been truly transformed from death to life, there should be some excitement about this fact.

Prayer Prompt:

Praise God today for the wonder gift of eternal life that He has given to you. It is impossible to thank Him too much for this gift.