SATURDAY 28th
Reading Acts 3:1-10
This is the last in this first 7 days of our Daily Devotional series on the Power of God and I have chosen to focus today on Gods power to heal. No doubt we will still consider other areas of his power as it will come up in other devotional series.
I think it would be fair to say that after prayer for the salvation of souls we probably could say that prayer for healing would come a very close second.
Healing is needed in different ways, first there is healing of the soul through redemption, there is the need for healing from hurts and disappointments, the healing of a broken heart, the healing of marriages and relationships, the healing of a nation as in 2 Chronicles 7:14 and then of course the healing of physical ailments. It is this area I want us to consider today, healing for sickness and disease.
All the time we are hearing of sickness and disease, not one of us is exempt from it and we all have those in our close family and friends that we know who are suffering in one way or another. But we need to remind ourselves that our God is more powerful than any sickness or disease. The great news is that he has already conquered death therefore this should remind us that there is no situation outside of his possibility.
The mystery is this, that despite the fact we know God has the power to heal and we ask him to heal he doesn’t always do it. It is at those moments that we need to remind ourselves that God is Sovereign, and he has the right to heal or not to heal. Just because it may not happen doesn’t mean he can’t! It is during those moments when healing doesn’t seem to be happening that we draw strength from God to continue to trust him. In 2 Corinthians 12 we read of Paul asking the Lord to take something that is bugging him away, we don’t know what it was, he describes it as a thorn in the flesh so it is possible it was something physical. Paul says that three times he PLEADED with the Lord that it should leave him. But the reply he received was ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my POWER is made PERFECT in weakness’. In response to this Paul said, ‘Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the POWER of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ Paul readily accepted after hearing that the weakness or thorn would not be removed that instead, God would give him sufficient grace to bear it, and this would be a demonstration of the power of God being seen in his weakness and as a result he would be strong!
I wish that everyone I prayed for and which we all pray for would be healed immediately, but what is more important is that God’s will is done. But even if we don’t see all the healing(s) we are looking for it should never stop us from asking. Because God does have the power to heal. The good news is that even if we don’t receive the healing here on earth, the day is coming when all sickness will be done away with! It is going to happen! Revelation 21:3-4 ‘And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
It is difficult to draw a devotion like this to an end because it is such a vast subject, but, end I must but thank God is power doesn’t end so keep trusting, keep asking and keep believing. I am reminded of an old chorus that goes something like this or in various ways; ‘Expect a miracle every day, expect a miracle when you pray, if we believe it God will find a way, to perform a miracle for you each day.’
One of my favourite older choruses is
‘He touched me, He touched me,
And oh, the joy that floods my soul
Something happened and now I know,
He touched me and made me whole.
Let us keep believing that has we continue to seek God for healing we will see things happening in the name of Jesus.
Almighty Father, great must be
Your power from all eternity;
How great your love in Christ made known
To those by suffering weighed down.
Christ healed the sick, the deaf, the blind,
Brought reason to the splintered mind.
He gave the peace of heaven to men
And set them on their feet again.
Yet may these things for us be so,
With Galilee those years ago?
Is life and all its fullness still
For us the heavenly Father’s will?
Indeed! the Christ who wrought such things
Is Lord of Lords and King of Kings:
Today as yesterday the same
To those who gather in his name.
Through laying on of hands and prayer
The sick may in Christ’s wholeness share,
And others, nursed to health again,
Renew their strength and lose their pain.
Almighty Father, let us see
In Christ man has the victory!
Help us to find, in life and death,
Your everlasting arms beneath.
© David Mowbray/Jubilate Hymns LM CCLI 788682