Mark 7:32-37 English Standard Version

³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And Jesus^[a] charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Look at verse 33. Jesus took this man that others wanted healed and took him away from those who cared about his wellbeing and did this miracle privately. The people asking for a miracle never saw what Christ did to heal the man. Spitting on the tongue and placing His fingers in his ears is very mechanical in form and has nothing to do with the healing except how it was perceived and received by the man being healed. For the man it was personal, private and only had meaning to him. Jesus knew that. This is may be why He took the man aside privately.

This is important to each of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The miracle of transformation into this new creation which we have become was done in private where no one can see how it was done. Like the deaf and dumb man that was healed those who pray for the lost will know that it was Jesus that saved them. They will not know how or even when but faith tells them it is Jesus who saves.

TBC

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 English Standard Version

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^[a] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Footnote a: Greek irritable and does not count up wrongdoing

Pondering the issue of insistence, it is possible that one source of an insistent attitude may be driven by perceived neglect. By replacing counting up wrongdoings with resentful we have replaced the source of the attitude with the resulting attitude.

People who keep score will always perceive that they are owed recompense. When they do not receive it the score goes up and the attitude becomes more insistent.

Life owes us nothing but death.

That is an extremely difficult comment and can only be fully appreciated in the character and quality of God’s mercy and grace. Neither are earned. They are free gifts from God come with the additional benefit of agape love, having found them in the sacrificial works of Christ on the Cross. The abiding love of Christ is this love spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. It abides in us and can only shine through our flesh if it is allowed to manifest itself by the changing of our hearts and minds.

The mind reflects the change of heart. Sadly the mind cannot change the heart. It works the other way around. Those of us who exhibit attitudes that are insistent, irritable and resentful are in need of heart change.

Psalm 119:11 English Standard Version (ESV) I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

While His Word may be in their memory, they have not been taken to heart.