Text: John 9:1-41
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age…” —Titus 2:11-12
She was his dearest teacher, the one who first taught John Newton spiritual truths. His mother, Elizabeth Newton, was the one who modeled godliness for him when he was a young boy. But her gentle nurturing was short-lived as she passed away at the age of 27. His seafaring dad took him to sea for months at a time where John learned the partying and hard-edged ways of the sailor life.
The young man turned away from his early moral teachings and became complicit in horrifying atrocities with the slave trade, until a maritime crisis in 1748 prompted him to pray, “My mother’s God—God of mercy—save me!” Sometime later, he experienced a spiritual conversion, and his life was dramatically changed. He later became a preacher, abolitionist, and hymn writer, of which his most famous was “Amazing Grace.”
John Newton later said of his mother, “My dear mother, besides the rains she took with me, often commended me with many prayers and tears to God; and I doubt not but I reap the fruits of these prayers to this hour.” John Newton would wander and rebel, but he couldn’t flee the prayers of his mother, or outrun her God. Eventually he would sing, “I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.”
When the Pharisees investigated the healing of a blind man whom Jesus had miraculously healed, they secretly aimed to scandalize Jesus and discredit the miracle (John 9:24). They found out that you can argue against a creed, but you can’t argue against a changed life! The former blind man wouldn’t go along with their smear job, instead testified, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Have you embraced the amazing grace of God in your life? Can you say today, “I once was blind, but now I see”? You don’t have to wait ‘til the ship is coming apart in a violent storm before letting Him rescue you from your own sin and rebellion. Nor do you need to wait until a later time to thank a person who has invested in your life, especially one who has prayed for you so often. How might God be writing His amazing grace upon the tune of your heart this week?
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, thank you for amazing grace… for saving a wretch like me. Thank you for those who have prayed for me when I couldn’t pray for myself, or was just too lost and blind to do so. Jesus, thank you for taking my place on that cross and dying for my sins so that I can be forgiven and have peace with God. Teach me to follow you daily. Amen.
Questions for Reflection and/or Group Discussion
- In what way are people today spiritually blind?
- Who did Jesus claim to be? (John 9:37) What did the blind man do when Jesus told him who He was? (v. 38)
- According to Jesus, why had He come into the world? (v. 39)
- How has Jesus’ healing of your spiritual blindness changed your life?
- For what person, who is spiritually blind, will you pray that God would open his or her eyes?
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