When something bad happens, what is the first thought that comes to mind? When someone does you wrong? When a friend passes away? When you get fired from your job? Maybe you were born into something bad? Maybe you were born blind? When your world feels like it is just slipping through your fingers and no matter what you do you can’t seem to hold on?

Why? Why me?

We think it is a result of our sin. Punishment for all those things we’ve done wrong. We think God is punishing us for not being good enough. But here is the thing about sin, God does not punish us for it. God does not punish sin, he judges sin. Therefore, that mess of a thing happening in your life may be a convicting moment, but it is not punishment.

If it isn’t a result of sin, then why?

Why, as the disciple’s asked in John chapter 9, was this man born blind? Jesus says that we are asking the wrong question. Why? It is simple. “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” What you really want to know is when. When will God reveal his power through this situation? When will we see God’s purpose? When?

And then Jesus spit.

Yes, you read that correctly. Jesus spit in the dirt and made clay to spread on the blind man’s eyes. And then he was healed? Jesus just has to touch us, touch our lives, and our problems will be gone? No. Jesus said to go and wash off the clay, and then the man went home seeing. If he hadn’t listened, he would’ve just been a blind man with clay on his eyes.

Revival requires obedience.

We can’t be satisfied with just being touched by God. If that were the case, we would be walking around with clay on our eyes. Just as blind as we were before. We have to follow instruction. Our body and soul go hand in hand. Faith without works is dead. Just like you can act as though you believe, but if not with your heart, then it isn’t really believing.

The question is not, “Do you want to be healed?” We all want our problems to resolve, the messes to be cleaned, the hurt to go away. The question is, “Do you believe God can heal you?”

When we believe with our body and soul we are moving from just being impacted by God, to being intimate with him. The blind man was healed because he truly believed that Jesus could do it. He believed not only with his mind, but also in his actions. He wasn’t just healed physically, but also spiritually. Body and soul.

So next time we want to ask God, why? Instead ask him when? Ask him for patience and endurance as we watch his works be displayed through us. Ask him for obedience that leads to revival. Life with God is not easy. He isn’t going to make our problems disappear. But he will never leave us as we walk through them. He will help us see.