By Wylie Foster
Hi, welcome to another wonderful Thursday! In our going and doing today, let’s choose to have a heart of thanksgiving.
Of course, life is challenging, full of difficulty, & unpredictable with plenty of opportunities to take short-cuts and the path of least resistance but then we’ll miss wonderful opportunities for God (Holy Spirit) to build our character, correct personality deficiencies, and identify areas needing immediate attention so that He can heal those specific areas of our lives that are wounded by circumstances, the deliberate (and sometimes unintentional) actions or words of others, and our poor choices.
There was a documented account of when Jesus encountered ten (10) men with a debilitating skin disease known as leprosy. This disease became your identity. Anyone infected with leprosy became known as a leper! We all become known by our negative associations (liar, manipulator, fornicator…). Lepers could write a book on social distancing because they were permanently quarantined from all other communities. They asked Jesus to heal them and He did but the healing wasn’t immediate. He gave them instructions to present themselves to the priest because it was the priest’s responsibility to release a leper once it was determined that the infection had taken its course and they were completely cured. Jesus told them to go while the infectious disease was still very active and evidently running its course. “In going, they were healed”!
I feel God’s presence in such a tangible way right now because how often does Jesus in His still small subtle loving but yet firm and conspicuous Voice, tell us to do something and we’re reluctant, hesitant, procrastinate, and ultimately disobey because we didn’t have the money, qualifications, experience, or the support of our spouse! I’ll reiterate “In going…they were healed”!
Last week, a coworker was in obvious pain and walking very gingerly. I immediately noticed and wanted to pray for him but I was afraid to because other people were around. There were times prior when I would speak to him but the kind gesture wasn’t reciprocated. I’m sure he thought that I was “interesting”, and I’m sort of used to people having that impression of me, but I just believe in being friendly! We don’t have to be friends to be friendly! You don’t even have to like a particular individual to be amicable! Only if we could learn this principle.
Anyways, I seized the perfect opportunity and I asked for his permission to pray in an environment that we couldn’t make it obvious. So, we walked and prayed together… The next day, he let me know that he was good and used the very scripture “In going…” I was overjoyed! The following day, when I seen him, he was more enthusiastic than before!
“But we have this precious treasure [the good news about salvation] in [unworthy] earthen vessels [of human frailty], so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be [shown to be] from God [His sufficiency] and not from ourselves” 2 Corinthians 4:7 Amplified Bible.
In closing, I remember praying for another man right before heading to work. His wife had just told me the day before about the “accommodation” his job was making for him that wouldn’t be favorable for their family. She was almost in tears. Whenever I spoke to the husband, he would speak back but you could tell that I probably wouldn’t be invited to the family picnic. I prayed and God delivered for that family on the same day and it was astounding!!! Guess who was in my face teary eyed, telling me about the miracle and how the “accommodation” was cancelled? Not him of course. But I did see him a few years later, and it wasn’t the “tough guy bravado”.
Do I need to say it again? Why not? “In Gooooing… they were healed”!
God bless dear friends.
Comentarios