He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
The people walking in front rebuked him,
telling him to be silent,
but he kept calling out all the more,
“Son of David, have pity on me!”
Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him;
and when he came near, Jesus asked him,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
This is from today’s Gospel (Luke 18:35-43). In a nutshell, it’s about a blind man crying out to Jesus for His attention, and upon receiving it, begging that he may be cured of his blindness in order to see. Jesus grants his petition by the man’s faith. There are two things about this Gospel that stick out to me: how the man prays and what he asks for.
The blind man persistently prays. I feel that sometimes my prayers are unheard, regardless of how many times or how sincere my prayers are. Or maybe I’m not praying ‘the right way’, which is why my prayers aren’t answered. Anytime I feel that way I know that I’m lacking faith in God and His loving faithfulness. Every prayer, every plea, every word and every thought is heard by our Lord. In times of doubt, I often read Matthew 7:8-11 and Romans 8:28 for encouragement. However, at the end of the day, praying isn’t just about getting what I want or God answering my prayers but it’s about reminding myself that Jesus knows what’s best for me. When I pray for a specific outcome and it doesn’t happen, it is very easy to be disappointed or angry with God. However, I’ve realized that attitude implies that I know better than God, which means I am putting myself above God. And so, my prayers should be less about what I want and more about uniting my wants with His wants. This doesn’t mean that I will stop asking the Lord to grant my hearts desires but instead that I need to humbly accept how and when He answers me. A good practice that I’ve found is just reflecting on the ‘Our Father’ and how it is said. It acknowledges God the Father and adores Him, asks that His will be done in our lives, for what we NEED (daily bread) and forgiveness for our sins. That’s how I ought to pray!
In this Gospel, the blind man asks for the Lord to see. It’s easy for me to associate the man’s physical blindness with his desire to see. I think any blind man would want to see. But looking at it from a different angle, we can associate the man’s physical blindness with our spiritual blindness. We are spiritually blind to God’s hand in our lives. When we pray and our prayers aren’t answered, we automatically think that God doesn’t love us, God is mad at us, or we did something wrong for Him not to answer us. But it’s the complete opposite. We need to ask for eyes of faith so that we can see how God is answering our prayers and how He is working in our lives at this very moment. Our God loves us so much that He is always inviting us to something better but fear and pride keep us away from that.
I want to see how God is working in my life because I know He is, despite ‘unanswered’ prayers. I’m alive because He breathes life into me for a purpose. His purpose. My prayers lately have been for an increase of faith and courage so that I may come to know how He is working in my life and have the courage follow through with what He’s asking me to do.