Believing Is Seeing - Part One Series

This is the blindness our Lord refers to here. In Matthew 11 he prayed, "Father, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes," {cf, Matt 11:25}. When we are reading the Scriptures we ought to recognize how desperately we are in need of being taught of God. He is able to open our eyes if we admit we do not see. But if we think we know, and we are confident that we do not need any help, then we are stumbling on into blindness. We will find ourselves eventually falling into a pit, unable to be helped.

I have had in my New Testament a verse I found in the writings of Henry Van Dyke some years ago. It is a beautiful prayer, and it states what ought to be the attitude of every believer as he comes to the Scriptures.

Grant us the knowledge that we need

To solve the questions of the mind.

Light Thou our candles while we read,

To keep our hearts from going blind.

Enlarge our vision to behold

The wonders Thou hast wrought of old!

In this Book we have the revelation of the Lord himself. As we come to it we may have to come through difficulty, through hardship, through trial, through resistance, but that is all part of God’s way to teach us what these words mean. As we read through the tears, oftentimes, that circumstances place upon us, our eyes are opened and we see the beauty and the glory and the majesty of our God.

I hope that too is your prayer.

Prayer:

Lord, we pray that you will indeed open our eyes. Help us to acknowledge that we are very inadequate people. We do not know how to solve our problems. There is no course we can take that will deliver us from ourselves. Help us, Lord, to come, like this man, and worship at your feet, to recognize that you have come into the world to give us light in our darkness, to lead us through the bewildering paths that we must trod, and bring us to the place of cleansing and of opened eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Title: Believing is Seeing

By: Ray C. Stedman

Series: The Gospel of John

Scripture: John 9:1-39

Message No: 27

Catalog No: 3857

Date: March 18, 1984

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To all Jesus is a man, a prophet, a disciple maker, the Lord, the Son of God, the One in whom we believe.