“He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ . . . Because of this, your trust can be in God who raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. Now your faith and hope can rest in him alone.” 1 Peter 1:19, 21 (TLB)
My vision—how I see the world, how I see God, and how I see myself—determines my stress level, my success, my stability, and my spiritual strength. It’s all about vision.
The Bible tells the story of how Jesus healed a blind man named Bartimaeus, restoring his vision. From that story, I learn the process by which God can transform my life and give me my vision back.
The first step to getting my vision back and living a transformed life is to believe that Jesus can change my situation.
I need hope in order to change. Hope means believing that Jesus can do what I can’t do on my own—and what no one else can do for me. It’s trusting that what feels impossible isn’t too big for God.
Luke 18:35-38 says, “As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was going by. So he began shouting, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (NLT).
I wouldn’t stand up in a huge crowd of people and start yelling—drawing attention to myself—unless I believed it was the only way to get what I needed.
Bartimaeus’ cry wasn’t a cry of desperation. It was a cry of hope. Bartimaeus’ answer was just a few feet away, and he wasn’t going to miss it. He moved because he had hope.
The reason why so many people have lost hope today is because they’re looking for it in all the wrong places. Some people choose to put their hope in the government, until it lets them down. Others put their hope in their job, until they lose it. Some put their hope in other people, and they will inevitably be disappointed because no one is perfect,
There is only one source of hope that won’t disappoint me or let me down. There is only one hope that I cannot lose. That hope is in God.
“He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ . . . Because of this, your trust can be in God who raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. Now your faith and hope can rest in him alone” (1 Peter 1:19-21 TLB).
There are lots of ways to lose my spiritual vision. But the key to getting it back is to believe that Jesus Christ can change my situation and bring about transformation. It doesn’t have to stay this way!
In summary:
My vision—how I see God, myself, and the world—shapes every part of my life, including my peace, purpose, and spiritual strength. The story of Bartimaeus, the blind man who cried out to Jesus from the crowd, reminds us that transformation begins with hope—believing Jesus can change what we can’t. Too often, people put their hope in things that disappoint: jobs, people, or systems. But lasting hope is found only in God, who proved His love and power by raising Jesus from the dead. As 1 Peter 1:19, 21 says, because of Christ’s sacrifice, I can put my full trust in God. When I believe that Jesus can restore what I’ve lost, including my vision, I open the door to a renewed life and lasting change.
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