Thought of the Day !!

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

                                  John 9:1-3 (NIV)

The Jews believed whenever a person had an infirmity like blindness or leprosy or other physical deformities that it was caused be sin.  So the disciples were curious about what had caused this man they came across to be blind.  Was it his sin?  Or did it go deeper?  Believing that Jesus would know, they inquired of him.

We should listen very carefully to his answer.  Though all bad and imperfect things ultimately are a result of being in a sinful world, not all things that happen to us are a direct result of something bad we did.  God does not punish us with suffering that comes as a result of a mistake we made.  He does not cause us to suffer because we failed Him.  The Bible teaches us that Jesus died as a punishment for all sin.  Living in this sinful world though does still have consequences.  And the consequences mean that bad things happen to people.

For this man born blind a positive thing could still come from his blindness.  Being healed meant that he would come to see (literally) the work of God in his life.  His life would be totally changed forever.

I'm a firm believer that God doesn't place hardships on us, but instead uses them to help us see.  If not for the times in my life when I felt lowest, I would not truly know the miraculous healing of God.  This is why the bible teaches in various places to rejoice in our suffering.  I believe that if we never suffered it would be that much harder to see and feel God's love.

So when you're going through difficult times (maybe right now), reach out to God for healing.  He may be trying to get you to "see" right now. 

In the love of Christ,
greg