“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in
my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me
with the robe of righteousness…” That is
a good morning resolve for every day of the year. If I began the day greatly rejoicing and
exulting in Him for what Jesus has done for me perhaps I would find other
things through the day less irritating and find more in which to rejoice as I pass
through the day. What if you received
these words: “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of your God. You
shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed
Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for
the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married” as true for you and
for the church, not just your particular church but the church that proclaims
Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life and began to pray for the Lord to
beautify both you and the church for His glory to be worthy of what He has done
for you.
Bartimaeus knew he had a chance to get what he wanted,
restoration of sight, and he wouldn’t allow anyone to tell him he was making a
spectacle of himself in order to get it.
Can you just see this blind man hearing the hubbub as Jesus was passing
near on His way to Jerusalem for Passover and asking someone who this was
everyone was buzzing about and then being told it was Jesus of Nazareth and
then beginning to cry out above all the other noise, begging, as always, but
Bartimaeus wasn’t looking for alms this time around, he wanted more from this
man. He had faith in what he had heard
about Jesus and the rebuke of the crowd didn’t deter him from seeking to gain
His attention. He was rewarded for faith
and perseverance, they weren’t rebuking him now. He would never again be old blind Bartimaeus,
he would now be the man Jesus healed.
Paul sees that his day is ending and Timothy is part of his
legacy and he urges him to carry on, fight the good fight, preach whether
people listen or whether it seems to return void, persevere as Paul has
done. This young man will carry on where
Paul left off. As we get older, it
surely becomes natural to look to younger men and women in whom we can invest
and encourage in the way of Christ. It is
important to pass on wisdom and encouragement in this way, both to our children
and to those who will carry on the faith in their own day. It should be our great delight to invest in
the lives of younger people, at whatever age and stage of life we may find
ourselves in, whether we are 25 or 85. Someone
in your life needs you to encourage them and remind them they are deeply and
dearly loved by you and, more importantly, the Lord. Rivers of living water are intended to flow
from us to others, not simply be dammed up as a private reservoir. If it does, it ceases to be living water and
becomes stagnant pools.
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