Spiritual Blindness

Luke chapter 18, verses 31-43

Do you ever look at the characters in the Bible and think (self-righteously) "How in the world could they have been so ______ <insert derogatory adjective>?"
In verses 31-34, the Lord plainly tells his disciples what will happen in Jerusalem during the upcoming Passion Week, and in the Message version it says that they "could make neither heads nor tails of what he was talking about."
It is easy for us to say, "How dumb could they be?"
But, here's the thing.  They had in their heads this paradigm, ingrained in them by their religious teachers since their youth, about what Messiah would do.  What Jesus told them did not fit their paradigm!
Has that ever happened to you?  Has God revealed something to you or brought something into your life that did not "fit your paradigm" of how things should be or how they should go?  I've been there.
The Scriptures do not record that the disciples questioned Jesus further about these matters.  Do you think that they just dismissed what Jesus was saying?  I wonder....spiritual blindness...

Right after this story - - - so beautiful - - - Jesus and His disciples are walking toward Jericho and this blind man gets wind that they are passing by.
Note how insistently he cries out for Jesus!  What a contrast to the response of the disciples just prior!
And what happened?  This man, who so desperately wanted to see, was given his sight by Jesus.

Do you want to see, spiritually?  Sisters, friends!  We need to cry out for Him as intensely as did that blind man, every, single moment!
Draw near to Him.  Over and over in the Scriptures we are promised that, if we earnestly seek Him, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13), that if we draw near to Him He will draw near to us (James 4:8).

Do you want to see?

Oh Lord, open the eyes of our hearts today.  You told Jeremiah in chapter 33 of his book that we should call on you and that when we do you will tell us great and incomprehensible things that we do not yet know.  We love you, Lord!  Show us how to love you more!  In Jesus' name, Amen.