Contentment in Any Circumstance

John 9:1–12
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

It is said that in the United States somebody goes blind every twenty minutes. In this chapter, the Lord encounters a blind man, and the question put to Him by the disciples concerning the man’s blindness can help us face the question that all of us have asked at one time or another (v. 1): “Why does God permit such suffering to occur?” The disciples apparently thought that this man’s affliction was because of his sin or his parent’s sin (vv. 2,3). Jesus makes it clear that suffering is not always directly traceable to personal sin (as in the case of this man). Then why was this man born blind? Jesus answers this by saying, “But that the works of God might be made manifest in him” (vv. 3-5).

The Lord’s method of healing was unique (vv. 6-7). He put clay on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash. The neighbors and those who previously had seen the blind man questioned if  he was the one who sat and begged” (v. 8) He said, “I am he” (v. 9). Then, they asked how his eyes were opened and he said Jesus did it (vv. 10-11). They asked where he had gone and he replied “I do not know” (v. 12).

Handicaps are an opportunity for certain things to be manifest in that person’s life and the lives of others who come in contact with that person. The handicapped often develop inner qualities of peace and joy and strength that other people do not have. Fanny Crosby, a dear saint of the last century, who was blind from her earliest childhood, is a prime example of this type of person. When she was only eight years old she wrote this little poem  “Oh, what a happy child I am, although I can’t see. I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t. To weep and sigh because I’m blind, I cannot and I won’t!”

Application

I want to be a person who is not only content in whatever state I find myself in but one who brings peace and joy and strength to the lives of others I may come in contact with, no matter what affliction they may face in life.

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