The Disabled: Blind/Lame

I would like to start by saying that our God is Lord of the physically healthy and the mentally strong but He is also the God of the physically disabled and the mentally handicapped.

He is sovereign over the weak and feeble as well as the strong and mighty.

Psalm 139:15-16 (MSG)

“You know me inside and out, You know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, You watched me grow from conception to birth;

All the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

Every person conceived in this world is a unique creation of God, including the disabled, the handicapped and the blind.

The question is, why does God allow some people to be born disabled or handicapped or blind or why does He allow accidents that bring about a disability later in life?

If God is both good and omnipotent, why does He allow bad things to happen?

What is the point of someone losing their sight or being forced to walk with prosthesis?

How can we reconcile God’s goodness and perfection with the fact that so much of His creation is broken and wounded?

If the truth be said, we are all disabled or handicapped in one way or the other.

Some of us use eyeglasses which indicates impaired vision, some use dental braces as a sign of imperfect teeth.

Some people suffer from diabetes, arthritis, rosacea, knock knees, lazy eye, the left side (hands, fingers, toes) slightly different from the right….etc

The whole human race lives with the reality of imperfection.

We are all broken in some way or form.

Even when our Lord Jesus took on human form, He took on imperfection.

The handicaps we live with are simply a matter of degree.

Disability or handicap in whatever degree is a symptom of original sin, when evil came into the world.

Sin entered the world as a result of man’s disobedience to God and that sin brought with it sickness, imperfection and disease.

Romans 5:12(NIV)

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

The world was blemished.

God allows people to be disabled, blind or handicapped

As a natural result of mankind’s rebellion against Him.

We live in a fallen world.

However not every disability is a direct result of sin.

John 9:1-3  (NKJV)

“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

Generally the existence of disabilities and handicaps can be traced back to the existence of sin.

Another reason God allows some people to be disabled or handicapped or blind is for God to glorify Himself.

In the rest of the above scripture, when the disciples wondered about the man born blind, Jesus told them, “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him”

The third reason is that we must learn to trust in Him rather than in ourselves. When God called Moses in the wilderness to go and rescue the Israelites,, he tried to use his disability as an excuse from service.

Exodus 4:10(NKJV)

“Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

However, God knew all about Moses’ problem.

Exodus 4:11-12

11 So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?

12 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

All human ability and disability is part of God’s plan and God will help His obedient servants.

God does not call the equipped so much as He equips the called.

Story of Joni Eareckson Tada.

This story echoes the Apostle Paul who accepted Christ’s sufficient grace for his thorn in the flesh, he said:

“I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me….., for when I am weak, then I am strong” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

The forth reason why God allows some people to be disabled or handicapped is that He has chosen the weak things of this world for a special purpose.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29

“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”

God does not need human might or skill or fitness to accomplish His work.

Calvary has qualified everyone to do God’s service.

Knowing this truth can help the disabled, the blind and handicapped believers to maintain focus on Christ and His finished work on Calvary.

It is easy to curl up into a ball and feel sorry for oneself when life makes no sense but Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness.

Fanny Crosby whose full name was Francis Jane Crosby maintained such a focus, on her maker that she did not allow her disability to hinder her divine assignment.

One well-meaning preacher said to Fanny Crosby:

"I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you,"  Fanny replied at once, as she had heard such comments before.

 "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind?" said the poet, who had been able to see only for her first six weeks of life. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Saviour."

When Jesus came into this world, He became voluntarily disabled. He handicapped Himself as He left the perfection of heaven to live among the sinners on earth.

Jesus took on human flesh in all its frailty and vulnerability.

He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

The Son of God took part in our human condition and suffered on our behalf.

Today we have an Intercessor who understands our weakness, who relates to our disability and identifies with our pain.

Today the finished works of Cavalry gives power to the weak, the disabled, the blind and handicapped to “go ye also into the vineyard” to harvest souls.

No one is exempt, God is expecting a harvest from the vineyard even from the disabled, the blind and handicapped.

Even the blind and the handicapped, God wants no one to be idle.

For it is in our weakness that His strength shall be made perfect.

A quote from a book “The God I love: A Lifetime of Walking with Jesus, Zondervan Publishing Co says that: “Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don’t need God as much”

And also

“The position of weakness, disability and handicap – the position of having to trust God in this world is a position of honour and blessing indeed”

PRAYERS

·      Father thank You for Your grace that has delivered us from being totally consumed in our sin but has allowed us to live in our imperfect state.

·      Father we ask for strength and power for those living with a high degree of physical disability and blindness, may they totally lean on You, let Your strength be made perfect in their weakness.

·      Like Moses who used his ability as an excuse to escape from doing Your service, Lord we ask that the inner eyes of our Christian brethren living with a handicap, a disability or blindness be opened to see past their disability or blindness so that they may know the real purpose of their existence, that they may make a difference.

·      Lord in 1 Corinthians 1:27, Your Word says “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” may Your purpose and Your reason for those that are disabled, the blind and the handicapped become a reality, let it manifest through them, may You not find them unusable.

·      Lord we rebuke the spirit of self-pity in the disabled, the blind and handicapped, let them rise up and set their focus on Calvary that they may go ye also into the vineyard.