Morning & Evening Daily Devotional Reading– May 8

by Charles H. Spurgeon, Revised and Edited by William C. Neff

“He did not even know who had healed him.”

—John 5:13

Years go by quickly for the happy and healthy, but thirty-eight years of disease must have seemed like forever to this man who was unable to walk; so, when Jesus healed him at the pool of Bethesda, the man was delightfully aware of how his life had changed.

In the same way, the sinner who has been paralyzed with despair and has been wearily gasping for breath is very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word of power to him and gives him joy and peace in believing. This change is far too great to go unnoticed.

At the same time, however, the poor man did not even know who had cured him. He did not know that it was Jesus, the very Son of God. Apparently, it is possible to receive great blessing from Jesus– even His saving power– without knowing very much about Him. We shouldn’t be too quick, then, to condemn new believers for their lack of knowledge, but we should be glad for their salvation. The Holy Spirit makes men repent of their sins long before they understand the true depth of their sins or the awesome character of the God who forgave them.

Ignorance, however, is no virtue, and the Pharisees taunted him because of it. But in time his ignorance was cured for the Lord visited him in the temple, and later the man was found telling others that “it was Jesus who had made him whole.”

Dear Lord, let me know more of who You are so that I can tell others about You more clearly and more boldly. [M&E]