Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Patrick Miller.

What keeps you from asking God for big things?

Not just in private, but with friends, with family.

Maybe it's fear.

You fear that he won't give you what you ask, and it might undermine your faith. Or maybe you fear looking silly. Or maybe you fear

looking proud, like you're asking for too much. Or maybe you fear looking weak or looking

needy and incompetent. Why ask God for what I can do on my own? Now, I want you to ask a different

question. How do you think God feels when you don't ask him for big things? I had this funny

moment not too long ago. My daughter has several friends whose dads take them on a 10-year-old

birthday trip to some pretty cool places. Now, I thought this was an amazing tradition,

but I'm a pastor. I don't make enough to have the kind of lifestyle where I can afford to do

the kinds of things that all my friends can go do. So of course, with my daughter, when I tell her,

hey, we're going to do a 10 year old trip. She has no idea that I can't do the same things

that all of our friends do. So what does she do? Well, she asks. She's nine this year, and she came up to me full of joy and asked, could we go to Harry Potter World for her 10th birthday? So I can tell you what didn't go through my head. I didn't think, you know, how could you be so silly to ask for something so big? I didn't think, why are you so incompetent and weak that you can't afford to go and pay for that trip on your own? I didn't think, why are you so needy? You know what I thought? I'm so happy you asked me, because you're my daughter, and I delight in you, and I would love nothing more than to give you what you want.

Of course, there's plenty of things she asks for that I don't give her. A smartphone would be the

first thing on the list. I know it would be terrible for her development, her education, her soul.

So I tell her no again and again and again. But even then, I'm delighted that she asks. I'm delighted that she needs

me. She relies on me. She trusts me. That she isn't afraid or embarrassed to ask me for things.

And I have to think, doesn't God feel the same way? It sure seems like he does in today's passage.

Let's pick up in Luke 1835. As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was

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