Another thing that causes us to become spiritually blind is pride. Let me give you a verse – Revelations 3:7 – the Bible’s talking about people in church and it says – “You say you have no need, but it says you’re wretched and poor and blind.”
Pride means – I’m excessively interested in myself. Pride has two faces – very arrogant and projecting myself, and I’m so in love with me I can’t see anything about you. Pride causes people to be very self-centred. The person who’s proud has this kind of view – “It’s all about me. Tell me more about me.” So, a person’s who’s proud, when you are with them, you would feel of no value whatsoever because they’re too busy thinking about themselves. When you start to talk with them, you don’t talk much, they do all the talking. It’s all about them. So that’s one face of pride.
The other face of pride is exactly the opposite. “I’m of no value whatsoever.” The person is introverted. They’re focused on themselves. They’re always thinking – what are people thinking about me. I wonder what they’re thinking. I want people to like me. So this again, is the face of pride. All of these things create a spiritual darkness around us. They make us blind – we can’t see.
Here’s another thing that creates blindness – and that is bitter offenses. When people are offended, when they harbour unforgiveness in the heart, it’s very hard to see clearly because you constantly see your offense. The young woman offended with her father, is easily offended by men. Young man offended by his mother, easily offended by women. These things blind us. We can’t see clearly.
You notice with blind Bartimaeus, he was begging. See, he was begging. What does it mean to beg? That means you’re reaching out to someone to come through for you. You’re reaching out to someone to meet your needs. Many people do this.
When you can’t see clearly what God says about you, you will try and get people to affirm who you are. When you can’t see clearly what God says about you – your values, your giftings and your purpose – you will want other people to tell you. So you will use relationships to help you feel better and your relationships will always have a hidden demand. “Please tell me you like me. Please tell me I’m ok.” So, dependent relationships are built, which become very unhealthy.
If we have judgements in our heart, this also blinds us. In Matthews chapter 7 verse 5 – Jesus talked about judging. When you judge people, it says – you can’t see them clearly and we judge people all kinds of different ways. We may judge people according to their gender. “All women are like this.” Or “all men are like this.” We may judge people according to their race. So people who have judgements in the heart can’t see clearly and it affects how we live our life.
Here’s the thing we need to see about this man –this man wanted to be different. He heard that Jesus was passing by and to him, this was significant. He heard that Jesus would soon be there and he’d heard many things about Jesus. He heard Jesus was the coming Saviour, he heard Jesus did miracles, he heard Jesus helped people, he heard Jesus never turned anyone down.
When he heard Jesus helped people – set people free of demons, set people free of sicknesses, faith rose in his heart. He wanted to be different. He wanted the power of God to come into his life to change him. “I don’t want to be blind. I don’t want to sit in darkness.”
In Isaiah 42 – I think about verse 7 or verse 9 – it says that people who are blind, were sitting in darkness in a prison. Spiritual darkness is like a prison limiting your life, stopping you from seeing, holding you captive. If you have pride, it’s holding you captive. Bitterness is holding you captive. Hatred is holding you captive. If you have something spiritually holding you captive, you’re sitting in darkness, in a prison, looking for someone to help you.