In Matthew 20:29-34, Jesus encounters two blind men on the side of the road as he is leaving Jericho.  These men call out to Jesus when they hear that He is passing by (they were blind, remember, so they couldn't see Him). The crowd tries to quiet them, but they only get louder trying to garner the attention of Jesus.  Jesus stops, right in the middle of the road and turns to look at them.  I'm sure many in the crowd thought He would be on their side and tell the blind men to hush.  They didn't know Jesus.  The Master calls for the blind men to be brought to Him. Can you imagine what must have been going through the minds of these two blind men.  They have been summonsed by Jesus.  As they are brought to Jesus and now stand before Him, He asks them a simple question:  "What do you wnat me to do for you?"  Seriously?  Jesus, that's what you ask.  Isn't it obvious?

Jesus never assumes, even though He knows. He never imposes His will upon us but lets us choose it.  This question very clearly demonstrates that.  The men say to Him that they want to see.  Jesus touches them and immediately they see and begin to follow Jesus (wouldn't you?).  Throughout the life and ministry of Jesus, we see Him as a servant.  Several times throughout the Gospels He instructs His disciples about the first being last and those who seek greatness must be a servant.  Jesus demonstrates this in His own life.  Besides, why instruct your followers to do something that you are not willing to do yourself?

Think about that question though.  What would happen if we turned that question around?  What if we asked that question of Jesus?  What if, when we prayed, we simply asked what we could do for Him?  So often we just assume that what we are doing is what Jesus wants us to do.  Are we sure?  Have we asked Him? Or, is it that since this is what we want to do that Jesus must be okay with it.  Afterall, if Jesus didin't want me to do something, He wouldn't have given me the desire to do it.  And so begins the slippery slope to pride, selfishness and self absorption.

I think the reason we do not ask that question is because we are afraid of what Jesus may answer us with.  It could be that we already know the answer but we don't want to do it.  There are a myriad of reasons why we don't ask Jesus what He wants us to do for Him.  The problem is that none of those reasons are good enough.

When we fail to ask Jesus how we can serve Him or where we can serve Him, we reveal the true identity and nature of our heart.  We are not humbled before Him.  We are not surrendered to Him.  We are not submissive to Him.  We are not obedient to Him. If we are not asking Jesus this one simple question, then do we belong to HIm at all?