faithfulness

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The Secret Bartimaeus Knew Before He Could See

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

A blind man sits on the roadside outside Jericho. He hears a crowd, learns Jesus is passing by, and starts shouting. People tell him to be quiet. He shouts louder. When Jesus finally stops and asks him a simple question, that question becomes one of the clearest pictures of faith in the whole Gospel of Mark.

What Do You Want Me To Do For You

Jesus asks Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46 to 52, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee. It is a strange question to ask a blind man. Isn’t it obvious what he wants? But Jesus places the responsibility on Bartimaeus to name it. He answers plainly, that I might receive my sight. Notice the word he chooses. Not give me sight, but receive my sight. He already claims it as his before it shows up. That is not presumption. That is faith defining its target.

Receiving Is Not The Same As Striving

Scripture is full of people who positioned themselves to receive rather than strain to earn. The man at the gate called Beautiful in Acts 3 stretched out his hand expecting to receive something, and his feet and ankle bones received strength the moment he stopped waiting and started expecting. James 1:5 to 8 warns that a wavering, double minded person is like a wave tossed by the wind. Faith is single minded. It knows what it is asking for and it does not keep changing its mind about whether God is willing to give it.

Define The What And Trust God With The How

You are responsible for naming what you desire and bringing it to God with honesty. You are not responsible for engineering how it happens. Romans 12:1 and 2 calls this being transformed by the renewing of your mind so you can prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Fear, doubt, and indecision are the real obstacles, not God’s willingness.

Bartimaeus did not receive his sight because he understood theology. He received it because he asked clearly and believed simply. That is still available to anyone willing to shout past the crowd.

-Terrence Burton

Faith That Holds Through the Fire

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Faith is easy to talk about when things are going well. But the real test of faith shows up when life doesn’t make sense. When you did everything right and it still went wrong. When you prayed and believed and stood on God’s Word — and the answer hasn’t come.

That’s when faith gets real.

Hebrews 11:1 defines it plainly — “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Assurance about what you do not see. That’s the part that’s hard. Because everything in us wants to see before we believe. We want proof. We want guarantees. We want to know how it’s going to work out before we take the step.

But that’s not faith. That’s sight. And God calls us to walk by faith, not by sight.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in front of a furnace that was heated seven times hotter than normal and said something that still gives me chills — our God is able to deliver us. But even if He doesn’t, we still won’t bow.

Even if He doesn’t.

That’s mature faith. Faith that trusts God’s character even when it can’t trace His hand. Faith that says I believe You are good even when my circumstances don’t look good. Faith that holds on not because it has all the answers, but because it knows the One who does.

God is not asking you to pretend everything is fine. He’s asking you to trust Him in the middle of what isn’t fine. There’s a difference.

So keep believing. Keep praying. Keep standing.

Faith that holds through the fire is the kind that comes out on the other side without even the smell of smoke.

-Terrence Burton

You Were Created on Purpose, for a Purpose

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Purpose is one of those things everybody is searching for. People change careers, move cities, read books, take courses — all in pursuit of figuring out why they’re here and what they’re supposed to do with their lives.

But purpose was never meant to be a mystery you solve. It’s an identity you walk in.

Ephesians 2:10 settles it — “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Prepared in advance. Before you were born. Before you made your first mistake or your first success. God already mapped out the works that were tailor-made for your hands. You are not an accident. You are not a coincidence. You are a carefully crafted creation with a specific assignment on this earth.

Here’s what trips a lot of people up — they’re looking for purpose in the big, dramatic moments. The grand platform. The massive audience. The life-changing event. But purpose often shows up in the small, faithful, everyday moments.

It’s in how you treat people. How you show up for your family. How you use your gifts right where you are. How you serve faithfully in the season you’re in, even when nobody is watching and the spotlight hasn’t found you yet.

Moses spent forty years in the wilderness before God called him to lead. Paul was in the desert after his conversion before he started his ministry. Even Jesus spent thirty years in obscurity before three years that changed the world forever.

The hidden season is not wasted time. It’s preparation time.

You don’t have to have it all figured out today. Just stay close to God, be faithful where you are, and trust that the One who created you with purpose is more than capable of walking you into it.

Your purpose is already in you. It just needs room to grow.

-Terrence Burton

The Greatest Serve

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Somewhere along the way, somebody told you that being humble meant making yourself small. Staying quiet. Shrinking back. Not taking up too much space.

But that’s not humility. That’s fear with a religious mask on.

True humility is not thinking less of yourself — it’s thinking of yourself less. There’s a big difference. And God never called you to shrink. He called you to serve.

Matthew 23:11 says it plainly — “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

In God’s kingdom, the path to greatness runs straight through humility. Not the false kind that performs modesty for an audience. The real kind — that genuinely puts others first, that doesn’t need the spotlight to feel secure, that serves faithfully even when nobody is watching.

Jesus is the ultimate example. The Son of God — all power, all authority, all glory — got down on His knees and washed His disciples’ feet. He didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped. He humbled Himself. And because He humbled Himself, God exalted Him to the highest place.

That’s the pattern. Humility before honor. Service before elevation.

If you’re constantly chasing recognition, constantly needing credit, constantly frustrated when your contributions go unnoticed — that’s worth examining. Because true greatness in God’s economy doesn’t chase titles. It chases impact.

Who can you serve today? Who can you pour into? Who needs encouragement, a helping hand, a kind word that costs you nothing but means everything to them?

Lead with humility. Serve with your whole heart. And trust God to handle the elevation in His time.

The greatest really do serve. And God sees every bit of it.

-Terrence Burton

God Is Still Working

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Sometimes life gets so quiet that you start to wonder if God has forgotten about you. The prayers feel like they’re bouncing off the ceiling. The promise hasn’t shown up yet. And from where you’re standing, nothing seems to be moving.

But silence is not the same as stillness. And stillness is not the same as stopped.

God is still working.

John 5:17 gives us a glimpse into how God operates — Jesus said, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.”

Always. Not sometimes. Not when it’s convenient. Always.

The problem is we’ve conditioned ourselves to only trust what we can see. We want visible progress. We want timelines and updates and confirmation that something is actually happening. But faith doesn’t work that way. Faith says God is moving even when I can’t see it.

Think about a seed in the ground. You plant it, cover it with dirt, water it — and then nothing. From the outside, it looks like absolutely nothing is happening. But underground, in the dark, in the hidden place — life is forming. Roots are growing. Something is pushing toward the surface.

Your season of waiting is your season of underground growth.

God is doing something in you that has to happen before He can do something through you. The character. The patience. The faith that only gets built in the waiting room. None of that is wasted. All of it is preparation.

So don’t give up on the promise just because you can’t see the progress. The same God who spoke it is the same God who’s working it out right now.

He hasn’t forgotten. He hasn’t changed His mind. He hasn’t moved on.

God is still working. And what He starts — He always finishes.

-Terrence Burton