Jesus. This is what I need.

Luke 18:35-43 ESV

Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar

35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Let's talk about this section of Luke. Currently, at church, we are going through the book of Luke. 10/10 recommend. My mentor and I were talking one Sunday morning over coffee before church, and reading this section. She focused on where Jesus asked the blind beggar, “What do you want me to do for you?” Ooooffff. Like, can you imagine Jesus walking up and being like What do you want? What do you want me to do? I am pretty sure I would start falling over all of my words and probably ask for something completely stupid and not what I need. Not because I was getting confused and awestruck (even though that would totally happen), but I tend to put Jesus in this pretty box and only ask for “realistic things,” not God realistic things, but human mind realistic. Like I am pretty sure I would ask him to give me glasses to help me see, or ask for people to accept me for who I am, not because of my blindness…HELLLLOOOOOO why ask for those when you literally have Jesus in front of you who can HEAL you. Why do we ask Jesus for the small stuff instead of the Jesus-size stuff? You fell and have a scratch and have some blood happening? You pray to find a band-aid, why not pray to be healed? Why are we putting Jesus in a box when he didn’t even stay in the tomb after death?

I struggle with this daily, among other things in life. You also have to remember that Jesus is working, but sometimes not in the ways we want, because His plans are far greater than what we want. I get so mad and frustrated when I pray for something or someone, and I feel like nothing is happening. (Sidenote: It's okay to be mad or frustrated with God. That is something I have had to come to grips with; easier said than done.) I want to pray and see the prayers being answered but the deal is I am seeing the prayers being answered but I have my human vision on and not my faith vision because if we are being honest if I had my faith lenses I would see that prayers are being answered in the way it needs to be and not the way I want them to be. Gut check.

So I guess what this whole blog post was about was why wasking Jesus to fix things with duct tape and not to repair things with the tool belt he is constantly wearing. Don’t put Jesus back in the tomb. Talk to Him and let him work.

Spoiler alert: He’s going to anyway; it's just easier when we allow Him to do His thing without our walls.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus, I need you to heal me. I need you to heal my blindness so I can see what you are doing.