Bartimaeus, by right of the circumstance of his birth, was not afforded a choice in his life. He would never work in a master’s shop. He would never harvest fruitful vineyards and fields. He would never raise walls to a house of his own. He would never hear the sound of a home rich with life. Not only had his eyes been stripped of sight, but also his life of future and ambitions. His kind of people was forever delegated to a gateway to humbly depend on generosity or pity.

After a lifetime of limitations he did not choose, he found himself within reach of a single glimpse of rescue. He could have let the years of discouragement win out. He could have allowed the humility of his limitations to smother his hope. He could have even let the voices around him make yet another choice for him, but Bartimaeus could not, and would not, be stripped of his voice. 

The enemy cannot destroy you, but he will do everything in his power to silence you. He understands the immense power of the King hearing His child’s voice calling out to him.

You have a voice too. When yesterday is taunting you into silence, you have a choice to use your voice. When you feel like you won’t be able to wake up tomorrow, you can use your voice. When it seems as if you’re under the surface of an ocean, remember still, you have a voice. The only thing that can silence that voice is you.

In Luke chapter seven, Jesus beheld a woman mourning her son as she walked him to his final destination. Jesus didn’t notice the procession, the crowd, or the pomp. He specifically was drawn to His hurting, weeping child, and His heart was moved with compassion. Mark ten says Bartimaeus cried out, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those around him couldn’t possibly understand the desperation of his cry, or of his situation, as they tried to silence him. But that desperation spilled out in his voice as he called out again and again. And it was the cries of both of His children that caused Jesus to stop in His tracks.

Let your cry drown out the whispers of discouragement, hopelessness, and despair. Jesus is listening for your voice. He has a place of comfort and peace for you to fall into; a place of rest and healing. This is not your end. You have a voice.

“Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.” John 14:17-19, KJV