“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know anything about him! Well, God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Never since the world began has anyone been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do it.”

John 9:30-33

This is my favorite story in all the gospels, mainly because it pits the scribes, stuck in the intellect of faith, with a man who had experienced grace firsthand.  To me it serves as a constant reminder that, as much as I love diving deeper in my knowledge of God’s scripture and faith, it is the experience with God that truly transforms hearts.  God does want us to know him better, but if we just know Him and do not seek to experience Him, then we will never understand fully what we know.  There is a great difference between having our faith in our minds and letting Jesus reside in our hearts.  We can get so caught up in the things of faith that we fail to see God at work around us.  Jesus’ desire for us is not that we would know all about Him but fail to experience His grace.  We must be careful that our study of God’s word isn’t feeding our minds only, but also effecting our hearts as we seek to live out faith in Jesus Christ.

As for you, go your way until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you.

Daniel 12:13

Daniel, like Revelation, is a popular book for those seeking answers to the “end times”.  Go to any Christian bookstore and you will find shelf after shelf of books written to explain how our current world situation is exactly what the writers were writing about.  The problem is that you can also go to the used book store and find dusty shelves of books from generations past promising Jesus’ return in their eras.  Each generation has read scripture and found that their situation is exactly what the writers were talking about and, therefore, Jesus must be coming soon.  In the midst of all the panic, the main message is missed.  While writers are warning of the evils of modern government and culture, claims hard to deny, they miss the underlying message that God is delivering.  The basic message – Don’t worry.  If we have faith in Jesus, then we don’t really need to worry about His return.  We have nothing to fear.  We can stay on our way and live our lives without fear of God’s return because we can trust in the grace of Jesus.  His promises are true and He will not abandon us.  Jesus is our hope and we need not fear the future if we trust in His grace.

There was a man named Jabez who was more distinguished than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

A few years ago, there was a popular Christian book titled, “The Prayer of Jabez.” It was based off of the 2 verses above and encouraged everyone to pray the prayer, word for word, as a means of guaranteeing God’s blessings in their life. While I don’t think that there are any special power in these particular words or that saying them in any way guarantees rich, earthly rewards, I do believe that God does desire for us to seek Him and He desires to give us blessings. It is a basic spiritual truth that when we get closer to God, our lives are greater blessed. Now this blessing may not come by means of the things of this world. In my experience, those blessings are merely a secondary result of living rightly and being good stewards of what God has given us. No, our greatest blessings are deep spiritual blessings – a close, intimate, personal connection with Jesus. And when we seek God daily in prayer and choose to open our lives to Him, then He blesses us with greater blessings than this world could ever provide.

God does desire for us to seek Him and He does want to give us blessings, but not by the definition of this world. Our greatest blessing is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When we seek Him daily, His influence will extend in our lives and then we will know what it is to be truly blessed!

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1:1-5

Funny thing about darkness – it only exists in absence of light.  You cannot make anything darker by shining darkness onto it.  There is not a way to darken a room other than by reducing the lighting.  Put simply, darkness can never overcome light.  If light shines, then darkness fades.  But the darkness can never reduce the amount of light.  The darkest of darkness is easily conquered by the smallest of light.

As we live out faith, it is important for us to see that when life seems dark, it is not because the darkness has gotten stronger, but rather we have let our light become weaker.  If life seems dim, it is because we are not as connected to the Light of the World.  Christ is our light even in the darkest of times, and His light never fades.  He is strong enough to conquer even the darkest of darkness.  Indeed!  He even conquered the darkness of death!  He gives us His light to shine into the darkness of our lives and to conquer sin and death.  His light is the light of the world and the light of our lives.

So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you yourselves became an example to all the Christians in Greece. 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7

Maybe it’s something minor – you’re cut off in traffic and stuck in a long line trying to get home. Maybe it’s major – you’re losing your job due to someone else’s error or incompetence. No matter what the scale, how we act in the midst of pain is a great reflection on our faith. Like it or not, people who see us as Christians look to us to see what faith is and, more importantly, who God is. If we react to pain by turning bitter and seeking revenge, then people see God as a bitter and vengeful God out to punish us. If we cower and flee, people see God as one who abandons us when we are in our deepest struggles. But if we respond in joy and peace, we show confidence in God to give us strength to make it through.

What example are you setting with your faith? Does your reaction to pain and struggle reflect a deep trust that God will provide? Are you painting an accurate picture of who God is by how you react? People are looking to us to see God – are you reflecting the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ?