Saturday, September 08, 2012
"Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!'" (Mark 10:48 GN)
If you're going to make a fresh start with faith in your life, you have to face your fears. Don't let them control you! Fear has an incredible ability to paralyze our potential, to keep us from launching out, to keep us from having faith in our lives.
When we choose fear over faith, it makes us skeptical — we're afraid of trying anything new when we're afraid. It makes us selfish — we're afraid to commit to God and to others. It makes us short sighted — we focus on the past and not on the future.
Bartimaeus faced a fear that is familiar to many of us — the fear of rejection. He knew that to shout out at Jesus in that crowd wasn't the right thing to do. He knew that people would look down on him for it, but he was desperate. And he knew that Jesus ...