Don't Let the Crowd Decide for You

And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. (Mark 10:46-48)

Bartimaeus had lived with blindness for years. Every day, he sat by the roadside begging, while the very covenant that made healing available to God's people had been his by birthright the whole time. He wasn't locked out of God's provision. He simply wasn't yet walking in what had already been set aside for him. His problem was never that he stood outside the covenant. His problem was that he hadn't yet laid hold of what was already fully his.

The moment he cried out for Jesus, the crowd tried to silence him. Many told him to be quiet, as though someone in his position had no business bothering someone as important as Jesus. This is a familiar pattern. Crowds often decide, without any real authority, who deserves God's attention and who does not, treating His mercy as though it were limited to those with the right status or circumstances.

Bartimaeus refused to accept the crowd's verdict on his own situation. Instead of quieting down, he cried out even louder. That response is instructive. Opposition and discouragement from the people around you are not signals to quiet your faith. They are often simply noise that has to be pushed through, not evidence that your cry is somehow inappropriate or unworthy of an answer.

Practical Application

If people around you have discouraged your faith or made you feel your needs do not matter enough to bother God with, do not let their opinions decide anything. Don’t let the crowd decide for you. Cry out today with even more determination.

Psalm 34:6; Luke 18:39