October 19, 2024 Devo

October 19th, 2024

“It’s All About Jesus!”
Jesus & the Man Born Blind (John 9)
“Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, ‘Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam (Siloam means ‘sent’).’” – John 9:6-7 (NLT)
“When God Barges In”

One of the things that hit me as I was reading the story of the man born blind was something I never noticed before. The man never asked Jesus to heal him. He may or may not have heard of Jesus before, but he certainly didn’t hear Jesus coming and ask Him to give him sight. Jesus was just walking by, saw his need, and proceeded to stick a spit-made mudpack on the man’s eyes. The man was just sitting there begging, minding his own business, and Jesus barged in. He does that sometimes.
He did it with the Apostle Paul. Paul was so zealous about the Jewish faith that he considered Jesus and everyone who followed Him to be blasphemers. So he was helping to round up this Christ-following cult and putting them in prison or putting them to death. There he was one day, riding down the road doing his thing, and out of nowhere, POW! Jesus knocks him off his horse, blinds him, and tells him to become a follower of His.
Has God ever done that with you? Maybe not quite as dramatic as Paul and the blind man, though I’ve heard a few stories that were pretty wild. Maybe you’ve had God barge in during a time of prayer and tell you something that rocked your world. Maybe you’ve had God barge in during a worship service and hit you between the eyes with something you weren’t expecting. Maybe through some life circumstance, or maybe through some huge scare, or maybe through some major setback. God can barge in at a moment’s notice and do or say something totally unexpected. It’s not His usual way of doing things because He mostly waits until He’s invited in. But sometimes He doesn’t just “stand at the door and knock.” Sometimes He kicks the door in.
If God has barged into your life recently, I’d encourage you to pay attention. He only does it when there is something urgent, special, or important that He wants to get across. His barging in is out of His love and grace. He’s trying to help us. He’s trying to protect us. He’s trying to heal us. He’s not barging in because He wants to. He’s barging in because He HAS to. And something that important might want to make us sit up and take notice. Even if it’s something we really don’t want to hear. That’s God’s Word for you today.