Wednesday January 29th
Luke 4:38-39
‘And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.’
In two verses we have recorded for us what I am going to call two parts. The first part is the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law who had a high fever, and Jesus goes to the home to visit, and he stood over her, rebuked the fever and it left her. This is the first physical healing recorded in Lukes’s gospel, and in the verses preceding it he has recorded the deliverance of a man delivered from an unclean demon.
So immediately as Jesus embarks on his earthly ministry, we see that he has authority over the demonic and over sickness / disease.
But it is what happened after the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law that caught my attention, and it is this ‘and immediately she rose and began to serve them’. Now obviously this included all that were in the house, however many there may have been, but more importantly she would have had the joy and the privilege of serving Jesus.
And I want to remind us that there is joy in serving Jesus, a joy that should come from hearts that have been spiritually healed! We were spiritually sick, in fact it is worse than that we were spiritually dead, but Jesus came, and he has quickened us, he has made us a live again, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2 and as a result we should long, we should desire to be in a place of service for Jesus. And in doing so we are not only serving him, but we are also serving each other, all who are in the house, particularly the house of God where we fellowship together.
I end this devotion with the words of a well-known song:
There is joy in serving Jesus,
As I journey on my way,
Joy that fills the heart with praises,
Ev’ry hour and ev’ry day.
There is joy in serving Jesus,
Joy that triumphs over pain,
Fills my soul with heaven’s music,
Till I join the glad refrain.
There is joy in serving Jesus,
As I walk alone with God.
‘Tis the joy of Christ, my Savior,
Who the path of suffering trod.
There is joy in serving Jesus,
Joy amid the darkest night.
For I’ve learned the wondrous secret,
And I’m walking in the light.
There is joy, joy,
Joy in serving Jesus,
Joy that throbs within my heart;
Ev’ry moment, ev’ry hour,
As I draw upon His power,
There is joy, joy, joy that never shall depart.
Notice how over the last few devotions we have gone from sweetness to satisfaction to sufficiency to stillness to serving. Well tomorrow see what is next.