Day 3 (21 Days of Prayer and Fasting)

(Read Scripture Passages Above)

Reflect on the Word

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ interaction with the blind men follows a series of encounters Jesus has with people in desperate circumstances. Matthew 9 opens with Jesus responding to the desperate measures of the friends of a paralytic man, followed by a man who asks Jesus to come with the sober words, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hands on her and she will live.”

Jesus “rose and followed him,” only to be detained by a woman desperate enough to reach for the hem of his garment that she might be healed.

It is after these miraculous healings that we encounter the two blind men following Jesus—not just on the road, but into a house—crying out for mercy. Blindness in the Ancient Near East was one of the worst of conditions.

The blind would beg on the side of the road and sing for people passing by to take notice and have pity on them. It was a condition that came to be associated not just with misfortune, but with sin.

In fact, healing of blindness is the only miracle Jesus performed that is not prefigured in the Old Testament. They were asking for the impossible.

When Jesus asks them if they believe, their response is emphatic: “Yes, Lord.” Notice that though blind, these men were insightful—perceiving and believing that Jesus had the power to heal them.

Jesus responds by touching them and restoring their sight, proclaiming, “According to your faith let it be done to you.” Was there something about the desperation of their condition that informed their expectation?

Desperation—uncomfortable as it is—can be a seedbed for faith in our lives. The recognition of our own frailty and inadequacy provides us with the opportunity to look toward Jesus with rightly placed expectation, placing all our trust in Him.

Prayer + Contemplation

1. How has God used your desperation to draw you closer to Him in the past? Is there any current area of desperation in your life that He might be using to draw you to Him in this season?

2. Pray that God would make your heart desperate for Him alone. Offer any other current unmet longings to Him and ask Him to use those longings to draw you closer to His heart.

3. Pray for those in your life or in the world who are desperate for something. Pray that God would reveal Himself to them in the midst of their desperation.