Day #108 - Presence Blind

The Presence - A Devotional for Living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Have you ever been struggling to find something in the refrigerator and then your spouse comes over and grabs it immeadiately?

This has happened in our eighteen years of marriage so many times. My wife can spot something so quickly while I sit there just looking back and fourth for the same thing to no avail. My Dad tells me that he saw a study about women having a different type of vision or focus ability than men and apparently this gives them the advantage when it comes to finding things in the refrigerator. How frustrating is it to be so close to something you need but blind to it?

There is one interesting detail I left out in yesterday’s reading from the story of Jesus healing the paralytic who was lowered to Jesus by his friends. I wanted to draw out this insight separately today. Before these men even appeared on the scene with their friend, the story begins in Luke 5:17 that a crowd made up of Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from all over the region to gather. The next line is a little astonishing to me, “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”

If you know anything about the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’ day is that many of them as portrayed in the gospels were very resistant and hostile to the ministry of Jesus. They appear often in Christ’s life as the antagonist characters in the story who even plot against Jesus to kill Him. But here we see in this passage that the power of Lord was present to heal them.

I suppose wherever Jesus was, the power of the Lord was present to heal as His whole life and ministry could attest. But the way Luke writes this phrase “the power of the Lord was present to heal them,” makes it seem like Jesus was there to give them a special opportunity they could not see. Later in the story it’s evident they are upset with Jesus healing the sick and forgiving sins.

I wonder how much we are blind to the moments and times “the power of the Lord is present to heal?” Don’t be blind to His presence. Don’t think that just because you aren’t sensing or feeling God in a moment, that it doesn’t mean He isn’t there to do great things. Don’t be like these religious leaders who were right next to Jesus but were blind to what He could do to heal them. I love what Isaac Watts wrote in his hymn At the Cross:

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!

May God open our eyes so that we aren’t presence blind, but that we might see when He is present in our lives to do astonishing things!

Father God, thank you for Your Son Jesus. I don’t want to miss the moments in Your presence to see You do great things! I don’t want to be blind to what is available when You are near. Open my eyes that I might see You and know when and where You are working in power. In the name of Jesus, amen.