Wilson family devotional

One of the associate pastors at our church approached me recently about writing a family devotional for the daily email our church sends out to members of the congregation that have signed up for the "Daily Devotional". The pastor said that the church wanted to spotlight at least one family per week in order to have a child's perspective involved in the devotional.

I willingly agreed to this task and then convinced Amelia and John to help me brainstorm what we should say about the passage we were assigned to discuss. Amelia and John were OK with reading the passage and talking about it as a family, but they were reluctant to "let the other adults in the church read what they were thinking", as they said it.

Well, I went ahead and discussed the passage with them anyway, without them knowing that a brief synopsis of our discussion would be sent via email to a few hundred members of our church.

I am very proud of the outcome and am thinking that the Wilsons should conduct exercises like this more frequently. I know we don't emphasize the study of God's word enough in this house, so this was a refreshing awakening to something that should take more of a priority in our household.

Read the "Wilson Family devotional" below":

Mark 10:46-52

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 49 Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’52 Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Faith is a powerful feeling, as illustrated by the importance of Bartimaeus’ demonstration of his faith in Jesus. At the beginning of this passage, the crowd tried to quiet Bartimaeus when he called out to Jesus. But Bartimaeus was determined to speak with him so he cried out again after others told him to be quiet. And then when Jesus called on him, Bartimaeus was confident to request that Jesus make him well, seemingly speaking with the strength of his faith. Demonstrating the strength of his faith to Jesus led to Bartimaeus being healed from blindness.

There are many ways that this story can be applied to our modern and busy lives as our faith is tested everyday. We all face with challenges that range from being inconvenient to feeling insurmountable. But this story teaches us that no matter the challenge, we can always turn to Jesus for assistance in dealing with our troubles. He will be there for us, just as he was for Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus teaches us to shout out to Jesus even when external forces try to quiet our voice. Bartimaeus teaches us to be persistent in spending time in our relationship with Jesus because we love Jesus and want the opportunity to be heard by him. Bartimaeus teaches is that our faith in God will make our troubles better, whether the outcome from the test of our faith is what we personally desire or not. Our faith in him will guide us to acceptance of the answer to our troubles.

My children and I ready this passage together as a family, and afterwards we discussed what this story meant to each of us. Amelia, age 10, concluded that, “Faith can be a powerful emotion that can lead you to be healed from problems and receive God’s blessings”. John, age 7, added the following, “So for example, say you are really sad about a bad outcome, say you lost a big match in the neighborhood track meet. You can pray to God and talk to him about it, and even though he can’t change that you were not the winner of the track meet, having faith in Jesus will help you recover from not finishing first and will make you feel better about the sad outcome.”

Well said. I believe that faith in God can help us with everything from illness to dealing with personal problems to recovering from sad emotions after losing a track meet. But most importantly, having faith in God reminds us of God’s love for us and of his desire that we walk the path he has chosen for us - whether that means placing first in the track meet or not.

Please, Lord, help us to remember that the strength of our faith can help us overcome any obstacle that comes in our way. Help us remember that we can always turn to you for guidance and that you are always there for us. Allow our faith to remain strong so that we can receive your blessings. Amen.