Comfortable Christians Don't Get Miracles: A Luke 18 Devotional

A Blind Beggar Receives His Sight

35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

38 He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

39 Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” 43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

Luke 18: 35-42 (NIV)

Hello friends! Today I have some thoughts on the safe/comfortable/normal path Christians may have fallen into in Western culture.

In the scripture above, the crowd shushes the blind man when he cries out to Jesus asking for something radical. When Jesus heals the blind man, that same crowd sees and praises God. 

This is the same crowd from start to finish, all following Jesus, and because they were doing the "safe" thing or the "right" thing the "right" way, they would have missed out on a miracle. They would have dimmed the blind man's faith so he fit in with them or with their picture of the "right" way to follow Jesus. 

I find that comfortable church-goers can hedge their bets when it comes to praying for incredible things or worshipping in heart-rending ways. We go into the building, sit in our usual seat, worship the way we're most comfortable (and the way we expect everyone else to worship, too), leave, do Comfortable Christian Things for a week, then come back and do it all again the next time the church meets on Sunday morning.

We may hear testimonies of wonderful, miraculous, provisionary things the Lord has done for hurting people in other countries and feel awed at how big our God is. We say, "Wow, I wish that could happen in my life." Then we act like the crowd in Luke 18. We continue to follow Jesus, but we pray small prayers and do whatever it takes to blend in with the rest of the crowd. 

And if the person in the seat next to us believes in God for something God-sized, something impossible without His intervention and provision, we're uncomfortable. We shush the blind man, so to speak. We caution them against their big prayers, or we start to come up with excuses for why God might not make that happen, or how this person could probably be making it happen on their own without God. 

We don't want God to fail us. We want Him to fit in the Comfortable Box where we can be Comfortable Christians and have Comfortable Lives and we don't need to test the depths of our faith. And if someone cries out to God in a way that makes us uncomfortable, we turn our hearts away (and potentially pause or cut off our friendship) so that we're not embarrassed by their behavior and we don't have to face what desperate faith looks like.

How many times do we disbelieve or dampen the faith of another because they cry out to Jesus in a way that embarrasses us, or because they have a need that we just know isn't something God will grant? How often do we turn away from the crowd and miss the miracle, never getting to praise God?

Today, be the blind beggar, not the crowd, and find something big to pray for.

All the love,

Emily

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