Read Luke 18:35–43

How do you feel about intrusions? Like an early-morning knock at your door? Like a talkative passenger next to you on a packed-out flight? Like an illness that strikes at the wrong time? Like the piercing ring of the cell phone during a meeting? Like the relentless demands of your job?

Check your attitude. Instead of seeing such things as inconveniences, view all such matters through the lens of Scripture. Jesus shows us the way:

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was going by. So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

“Be quiet!” the people in front yelled at him.

But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord,” he said, “I want to see!”

And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 18:35–43)

What most would have brushed off as a minor inconvenience, or an annoying stranger, interrupting our morning commute, Jesus saw as a person with a deep spiritual need looking for His tender attention. I love that! Careful how you treat people on your way—the young gal in the drive-through window struggling to count your change (remember your first day on the job?), the third-grade music teacher barely managing a class full of nine-year-olds, your teenage son, making his way awkwardly toward manhood. Take a lesson from Jesus: pause, take time, be gracious. Show mercy. Listen. You can’t imagine the difference you could make.

Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

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