Life Can Impair Us

Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road.
Mark 10:46
We all suffer from various limitations in our lives. They could be physical or financial. They could be emotional or spiritual. Possibly you have become hopeless about things that are impairing your life.  Addiction, anger, pride, financial problems, etc. We may have limitations, but by following the example of a man in the Bible called Blind Bartimaeus, we can rise above our limitations and be all that God will have us to be.

Bartimaeus was a man who had very little going for him. 

He was from Jericho, A Cursed City
Jericho became known as the accursed place because when Joshua captured Jericho he cursed it... Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates." (Joshua 6:26)

Joshua pronounces a curse on anyone who dares to reconstruct fortress Jericho - on anyone who rebuilds its walls, and raises its towers.

He was possibly the son of a troubled man
'Bar’ is a Greek prefix that means 'son of...' So he was the 'son of' Timaeus.  The root of 'Timaeus' means polluted, nasty, dirty, corrupt, filthy... So Bartimaeus means "the son of the bad man." Maybe you come from a messed up family and can identify with Bart.

He was blind 
We don't know that he had always been blind but Mark leads us to believe that Bartimaeus had been blind for some time.

He was a beggar

The place that he lived was cursed... His people were bad... He was blind... He was poor (other than that everything was fine.) All Bartimaeus could do was to sit along the roadside begging and hoping kindhearted travelers would spare him a few coins. Now, in all honesty, we would have to say that Bartimaeus' future looked gloomy. His life seemed hopeless. Bartimaeus was a man who was simply surviving.

The condition Jesus found him in was without hope that anything could or would change without a miracle in his life. 

A miracle did happen in his life.  The Prince of Peace himself paid this lowly beggar a visit and none other than the Great Physician healed him.

Now, what can we learn from Bartimaeus? We learn something of what it means to journey out of darkness and blindness into light and the gift of seeing.  Like Bartimaeus, we can rise above our limitations and be all that God will have us to be – with His help.

Scripture to Claim:

“I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”  (Isa 42:6-7)