Faith and Healing

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. … to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,”
1 Corinthians 12:7, 9 NIVUK
“to another [wonder-working] faith [is given] by the same [Holy] Spirit, and to another the [extraordinary] gifts of healings by the one Spirit;”
1 Corinthians 12:9 AMP

“Wonder-working” and “extraordinary” are words the Amplified translation uses to enhance the meaning of the gifts of faith and healing. Paul didn’t elaborate on what the gift of faith is or how it would benefit the brothers and sisters in Christ, but all believers have faith that they have been saved through Jesus. But the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith is more than that. According to “gotquestions.org”,  “The gift of faith may be defined as the special gift whereby the Spirit provides Christians with extraordinary confidence in God’s promises, power, and presence so they can take heroic stands for the future of God’s work in the church. The spiritual gift of faith is exhibited by one with a strong and unshakeable confidence in God, His Word, and His promises”. Biblical examples of faith can be found in Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter. We read about the faith of Noah in verse 7, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith”. Noah’s faith was definitely God-given, because how else would he have laboured for a hundred years or so building a large boat on dry land in a place that had never experienced rainfall before? He had to endure the ridicule of a people who probably labelled him “that crazy man” or something worse. Because of his faith, and we remember that he didn’t have to do what he did because he had a free choice, the human race was saved from extinction along with the animals that God provided for him. 

“And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith”.

Genesis 15:6.

Another example quoted in Hebrews 11 is Abraham. Imagine being told in your nineties that you would have a child? And we read in Genesis 15:6, “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith”. But in a sense, we believers help our fellow Christians through our faith, that quiet confidence that God is who He said He is, and that He will bring to pass all that He has promised. Our fellow pilgrims sometimes go through a difficult patch, and it is our faith that will help sustain them through times of trouble. 

Paul also wrote about another spiritual gift, “and to another the [extraordinary] gifts of healings by the one Spirit”. In theological terms, this is tagged as a miraculous gift, something “extraordinary” that is far beyond what is expected or even deemed possible. I have a personal experience of this with my daughter, who some years ago suffered from encephalitis so severe that the prognosis was the worst possible. And yet, she was miraculously healed, and the word “miracle” was appended to her hospital notes at the time by the medics involved in her care. There are many Christians who sadly believe that the spiritual gift of healing died out with the First Century Apostles, but that is not my experience and the experience of many others in the faith. There are, of course, Biblical examples of miraculous healings, and the case of the lame man begging at the Temple gates comes to mind. He was a man who had never been able to walk and who had to be carried to the temple each day so that he could beg for sufficient money to keep himself alive. He asked Peter and John for alms as they entered the Gate, as we read Peter’s response and what happened then in Acts 3:6-7: “But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened”. 

Today, our medics, through technology and new drugs and medicines, can perform healings that would have been considered miraculous in Paul’s day. We thank God for the resources we have that bring about healings from all sorts of conditions. But there is still room for God to perform miracles of healing, and He does frequently. There is always the enigma of why God doesn’t heal everyone who asks Him in prayer, but we must always leave room for miracles in the lives of our fellow believers. Paul himself had an unknown condition that he referred to as a “thorn in his flesh”. We read about in in 2 Corinthians 12:7b-9, “ … So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me”. And then we have a little passing comment in 2 Timothy 4:20, “Erastus stayed at Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick at Miletus”. Surely Paul must have prayed for the man called Trophimus, obviously to no avail.

“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

Apostle Paul

We pilgrims continue in our journey, always praying for a miraculous healing when we encounter a brother and sister in need. And if the opportunity arises, we should pray for everyone in need of healing, because, for all we know, we might meet someone whom God wants to touch in that moment.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for the times when You have healed our sicknesses and diseases, and we are so sorry for the times when we have failed to thank You and acknowledge Your grace. But in those times when our prayers have not been answered in the way that we would like, we nevertheless still praise and worship You because of who You are. Amen.

Refuge in God

Posted on by korgrocker

“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy. For you bless the godly, O Lord; you surround them with your shield of love.”
Psalm 5:11-12 NLT

As the soft tones of the accompanying flute echo in the air, David finishes this Psalm with a wonderful picture of God’s protection, a picture of a scene of peace and tranquillity as the storms of life rage unceasingly around him. A 3D cameo of a human being hanging in a maelstrom of chaos, untouchable and safe, forever buoyed up into the presence of God. To describe this place, David used words and phrases like “refuge”, “spread Your protection”, “surround”, and “shield of love”. In David’s world, perhaps he was envisaging an impregnable fortress where his enemies could not reach him. Or it was the thought that in the middle of a battle the swords and spears of his opponents were unable to pierce the circle of shields that had sprung up to protect him. And welling up within him was an indescribable joy expressed in singing as he basked in God’s love.

Have we pilgrims ever been in a place like David? Have we ever experienced God’s protection, saving us from all the enemies that would come against us? A lovely story we perhaps think but not one that matches reality. We ask why bad things happen to good people. A fellow Christian smitten with ill health. A child of believing parents snatched from them by a drunk driver motoring by. Fellow believers in other nations persecuted because of their faith. Even people who dared to believe faithfully that God would protect them from anything bad, but He didn’t. 

We can read about the saints of old in Hebrews 11. On the one hand, there were those who seemed to go through life unscathed. Hebrews 11:33-34, “By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight”. But there were others described in the verses after, ” … But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons” (Hebrews 11:35-36). 

In Jesus’ longest prayer, He declared, “During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold” (John 17:12). But a bit later on, Jesus prayed to His Father, “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one” (John 17:15). And there’s the key. We, as human beings living in a world riddled with sin and wickedness, will experience the same ailments as anyone else, believers of not. Occasionally God will especially protect His children, as I can personally testify with the miraculous healing of my daughter. On other occasions He will, perhaps inexplicably, not answer the prayers in a way that we would like. But we will pray anyway. Fatalism has no part in a believer’s life. God is not capricious, however, sometimes healing a person and then on another occasion not doing so, depending on His mood. God looks at the big picture, and He has promised to keep us safe from the evil one. Living in a sinful world has its down sides, but one day we pilgrims will find ourselves in a place where, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4). In the meantime, whatever our circumstances, sick or well, we can “sing joyful praises” to God, assured of His loving and gracious protection until we arrive home.

Dear Father God. We bring all our sicknesses and diseases, our fears and worries, to You secure in the knowledge that You have shielded us from all the attacks of the evil one. As we stand firm in Your love we praise and worship You with thanks full hearts. And we thank You that one day, sooner to later, You will take us away to a place with You. Amen.

“Blind-No-More”

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.”
John 9:13-16 NLT

We don’t know how many Pharisees were present when the man who had been blind was brought before them. We don’t know his name and for centuries he has only been identified by his healing, not by who he really was. In Old Testament times names were often granted to children to mark an occasion or message appropriate to what was happening at the time. In Hosea 1 we read of children being born to Gomer being assigned names as part of Hosea’s prophetic message to his fellow people. Names such as “Not-loved” and “Not-my-people”. In times nearer our own we have seen names granted for a profession, such as “Lamb” for a butcher or “Gardener” for someone who has that job. So perhaps the new name for the man at the centre of this account should be “Blind-no-more”. But whatever we call him, the people, his friends and neighbours, were so confused that they took him to the Pharisees, especially because they were very sensitive to anything that might be construed as working on the Sabbath day. That spitting on the ground and making a little mud ointment should be classed as “work” is perhaps an indication of the hold the Pharisees had over the general population. 

Mr “Blind-no-more” must have been getting fed up with repeatedly having to tell people what had happened to him, even those who had previously heard his account. This act of healing by a Man who preached a message counter to that of the Pharisees had introduced so much confusion amongst them that we are told there was “a deep division of opinion”. 

We pilgrims have read this account of the miraculous healing so many times that we are in danger of becoming desensitised to the wonder of it. This was really a big deal, because someone who was born blind not only lacked functioning eyes but also they lacked that part of the brain that processes the visual images into a form where they could be understood. At an early age a child starts to see the world around him and their brain develops with the need to interpret what they see. And then think about the connection between different parts of the brain – consider what is involved in seeing a ball coming towards us and having the eye/hand co-ordination to catch it. Perhaps healing the blind man’s eyes was only a part of the miracle that happened to him that day. And so we stand in Mr Blind-no-more’s shoes and try and imagine how he felt. John’s account was a dispassionate précis of what had happened, factually correct, but I imagine Mr Blind-no-more was euphoric, excited and rushing around telling everyone what had happened to him. He wasn’t concerned that this had happened on the Sabbath day. Neither was he concerned about what other people were saying about it. As far as he was concerned, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!” And so we take a step back, looking on at the scene that was unfolding before us, marvelling at God’s power, grace, compassion and love.

Dear Lord Jesus. We read that this miraculous healing took place so that the power of God could be seen in the blind man. And we indeed give God all the glory for this, and the many other occasions when You Brough healing to a lost and hopeless people. Thank You for Your love and compassion. Amen.

Stop Sinning

Posted on by korgrocker

“But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.”
John 5:14-15 NLT

The man healed by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda had been pulled up by the Jewish leaders for carrying his sleeping mat on the Sabbath. They accused the man for working on the Sabbath, exposing their nit-picking approach to religious life. But they sensed an opportunity to extend the focus of their policing, by asking for the name of the person who had told the man to carry his mat. Perhaps, they thought, there was an imposter interpreting the Jewish law incorrectly. But they were too late because Jesus had disappeared into the crowds.

But we read next in John’s account that Jesus found the man who had been healed in the Temple. Did he still have his sleeping mat with him? Was he there to praise and thank God for his healing? Or was he making his way home and found himself in the Temple because he had been caught up with the crowds? But whatever the reason for him being there, Jesus found him, “and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” An interesting statement, loaded with meaning, and one which was just as spiritually life changing as the physical healing had been. I suppose an obvious question we can ask is if the man’s thirty eight years of disability was due to some sort of sin in his life. The implication is there that it was. The psychiatrists and medics today have apparently made a connection between a mental state and a physical ailment. There are also some who may draw the conclusion that the man at the Pool had been punished by God for his sin. But Jesus wasn’t interested in the reason for the man’s paralysis – that was history. He was now concerned about the man’s future.

Regarding sin, we are all expected to follow repentance and forgiveness by a change in lifestyle or behaviour. So, for example, if a man repents of his addiction to pornography, he is subsequently expected to turn his back on the magazines and internet sources of the material. Repentance, God’s forgiveness, must be followed by a change in behaviour. Of course, we will stumble and fall again, but our heart-felt desire is to change and be set free from the sin that has entangled us in its web. Thankfully, God is gracious and merciful, and quick to forgive a repentant sinner.

We don’t hear any more about the man at the Pool. But I’m sure that after his healing encounter with Jesus he would have turned his life around. What else could he do? And for us pilgrims, we too have had an encounter with Jesus. We have turned our backs on sin and sinful lives, choosing instead to follow the Master for the rest of our lives.

Dear Lord Jesus. As the old hymn says, “I have decided to follow Jesus, … no turning back, no turning back”. We sing that song again and again, Lord, each and every day. Amen.

Pick Up Your Mat

Posted on by korgrocker

“so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.”
John 5:10-13 NLT

The Jewish leaders were not happy at all when they found someone carrying a sleeping mat through the crowds around the Pool of Bethesda. They probably had a point if the man was moving house or was doing some other manual task, but after an amazing miracle the man was probably just heading home, musing in the process about what he was about to tell his family when he got there. He had a lot to think about. It wasn’t just his life that was changed. He would also find that the family dynamic was suddenly altered. The one cared for was no longer needing care. And what about a job – could he now find some way of repaying all the kindness shown to him over the thirty eight years of infirmity? Regarding his sleeping mat, he probably didn’t think about leaving it behind, after all, these things cost money, he thought. And anyway the Man who had healed him told him to take it with him.

But all of a sudden, he was jolted out of his thoughts by the religious police, the Jewish leaders, pulling him up over a simple thing like carrying a mat. The man explained how he had been healed, and how he had been told to pick up his mat by his Healer and walk. But that didn’t make any difference to the Jews. They asked the man, “Who said such a thing as that?”. But the man didn’t know because Jesus wasn’t with him any more. Rather than rejoice with the healed man about the marvellous miracle performed by Jesus, the Jews just wanted to stop a violation of their laws.

That was a sad day, because priorities and common sense were qualities conspicuous by their absence. The Jewish leaders missed a life changing encounter with God through the man who was healed. They were so focused on the mundane that they missed a supernatural event. But isn’t that something that we can all be guilty of? Even we pilgrims? How many times has God said something through a brother or sister, or through the preaching of the Word, or through circumstances, and we have ignored it, missing a God-moment? Do we sometimes get anxious over something that we fear might happen, only to find that God has gone before us and removed the problem? “What if’s” disappear before our loving Heavenly Father’s caring gaze. There is a short verse embedded in Peter’s first letter, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7). That isn’t there by accident – it is a reminder to all us worriers! 

But back to our man carrying his mat on the Sabbath. If something happening before us doesn’t fit into our world view, let us pause and seek God in case He is doing something supernatural. We can’t put God in a box of our own making, restricting Him to a certain way of doing things. He is God after all!

Father God. Please forgive us when we fail to recognise Your hand at work in our lives and the lives of our friends and families. We know that You care for us, Your children, every day, bringing life and hope in our times of need. We are so grateful. Amen.

Three Things

Posted on by korgrocker

“One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,”
John 5:5-9 NLT

I wonder what that man did every day, just lying there by the pool? Was his mind in neutral, in a living but comatose state? Or had he made friends with those around him, conversing with them every day? But without any meaningful stimulation, what was his mental state? And who fed him and tended to his personal needs? But the man at the Pool was obviously mentally alert and open to the possibility that he could be healed if he could only get to the water in time. What a tragedy – thirty eight years wasted. 

Jesus asked the man, “Would you like to get well?”, but the man’s response was one describing the practical difficulties caused by his disability. Imagine his limited efforts to crawl or squirm his way to the pool edge to reach the bubbling water before anyone else could get there. Imagine his despair when, once again, someone got there before him. Imagine the constant strain of having to look for the tell-tale stirring of the waters. But along comes the Saviour, compassionate and caring, with three instructions that transformed the man’s life. “Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”” 

There is so much to see behind these words. It wasn’t just the physical healing that made a difference. Once again we see that it is the whole person that Jesus heals. The man’s legs and other parts of his body suddenly had all the muscles, flesh, nerve tissues, and bones restored to them. He would have felt the new surge of energy and the lack of pain, but there was still his mental state that needed to be healed. After thirty eight years his mind would have needed time to adjust to the new situation. But we are told in John’s account that the man was instantly healed. And in accordance with Jesus’ instructions he stood up, rolled up his sleeping mat and started to walk.

People even today sometimes get caught in a rut. It needn’t be a physical disability, like the man at the Pool. It could be one of self pity, or feelings of helplessness through a relationship that has gone sour, or a job that has become full of drudgery or hardship. But Jesus has the words we need to enable us to stand up and move on. He always has a way for us to follow, to get us out of a situation. He always has the words we need to hear in times of stress and anxiety. These words may be difficult to hear and our response may well be one of fear, but through faith we know that God can heal us just as well as He healed the man at the Pool. 

In Romans 8:11, Paul wrote, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you“. We pilgrims, have the Holy Spirit living within us, giving us life and all the resources we need. After all, if the Holy Spirit was powerful enough to raise Jesus from the dead, He will have no problems with whatever ails us. So in faith we bring our problem to the Saviour and respond in obedience to whatever He tells us to do. 

Dear Father God. Thank Your for Your Son, Jesus, who came to this world for our benefit, for our salvation. Your grace and love is endless. Thank You. Amen.

Do You Want to Get Well

Posted on by korgrocker

“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?””
John 5:1-6 NKJV

To be sick, blind, lame, or paralysed in the days when Jesus lived in Palestine was a terrible and hopeless condition to be in. There was no remedy from the medics, such as they had, or anyone else. But there was a glimmer of hope in the gloom. Apparently, someone had discovered that the turbulence caused by the spring that fed the Pool of Bethesda had healing powers, because they believed it was caused by an angel, who came down from Heaven and stirred up the waters. Whoever made it into the Pool first was then healed. As a consequence, the Pool was populated by a “great multitude of sick people”, all there in the hope that they would be the first to make it into the Pool. The verses today don’t say how often the waters were stirred up, but in a society without any other alternative, there was no other choice.

In modern times, there is another spring of water with, it is claimed, healing properties. This spring is at Lourdes, in France, and many Catholic visitors go there to bathe in its waters, also in the hope that healing powers can be found. There have been many documented miracles, enough to attract thousands of sick visitors every year. To many of these people, Lourdes is a last resort. They have been told that there is little or no hope that they will get better from whatever ails them, and these people have much in common with the sick people lying around the pool of Bethesda. From Wikipedia, “According to Catholic tradition, the location of the spring was described to Bernadette Soubirous by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes on 25 February 1858. Since that time, many millions of pilgrims to Lourdes have followed the instruction of the Blessed Virgin Mary to “drink at the spring and bathe in it”.”

Picking up the account in our verses today, we see that during His visit to Jerusalem, Jesus visited the Pool of Bethesda. We are not told why He went there, but, in the knowledge Jesus only did what His Father commanded, He was there for a purpose. We also don’t know if His disciples were with Him, though John must have been to include the story in his Gospel account. But by the Pool, Jesus found a man with an “infirmity”. We don’t know what this was, but it was such that he was practically helpless, needing someone to help him into the pool when the waters bubbled up. But then, Jesus asked the man a strange question, “Do you want to be made well?” Surely the man wanted to be healed because otherwise why was he there? I have met two ladies with illnesses or disabilities who have responded to prayer for healing. One was made totally well, but the other, although apparently healed, quickly lapsed back into her previous state. The first lady bravely faced into the consequences of her healing with the loss of disability benefits and consequent financial challenges. The second lady realised that through healing she would lose her identity as the “lady in a wheelchair”, as well as the loss of a full time carer and other financial benefits. The first wanted to be healed. The second didn’t. But they were both healed through prayer and by a miracle of God’s grace.

The man at the pool had been in a desperate paralysed condition for thirty eight years, and amongst all the people sitting or lying around the Pool, he was the only one that Jesus sought out. Why was that, I wonder? The quick answer is that I don’t really know. There have been suggestions, such as Jesus might have known the man from a previous encounter, or that for most of the people there, God had already supplied a miraculous solution for the first person to enter the water after it bubbled up. Of course, Jesus may have healed others, but John’s Gospel account doesn’t record any.

We pilgrims know that God, regardless of our human state of health, can heal us. He does so through the medical profession, but He also heals through miraculous encounters with the Holy Spirit. Through our faith in Him, we trust Him with our life on this earth, and the life to come. There is no other way.

Dear Father God. You are the One who heals us, and we give You all the glory for the occasions when that happens. Please forgive us for our lack of faith. Amen.

A Desperate Dad

Posted on by korgrocker

“As he travelled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.“
John 4:46-47 NLT

Jesus finally arrived in Galilee after all the excitement in Sychar in Samaria, and John then records that Jesus “travelled through Galilee”. Why was that? Well, Jesus had an itinerant ministry, that started when He was twelve. We read in Luke 2:49b, ” …  Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Further on in Luke we read why Jesus travelled around. Luke wrote, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). Such a mission involved teaching about the Kingdom of God, healing the sick, raising the dead and doing many miraculous signs. There was a prophecy in Isaiah 61 about the Messiah’s mission, and Jesus read it out while in the synagogue in Nazareth. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come”” (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus was on a mission and there was no time to lose because He was about His Father’s business.

Jesus’ reputation had preceded Him, and a civil servant needed help with a sick son, who was so ill that his family were afraid he was going to die. A nightmare scenario for any parent, because I know – I’ve been there. My daughter somehow contracted a particular type of encephalitis and spent nearly four months in hospital. The medics could do nothing other than supply nursing care, and it was only God who brought her through to full health some months later. That fact that this happened at all was recorded on her medical notes as “nothing short of a miracle”. In Jesus’ day there was little in the way of medical solutions to illness. People either got better or they died. All their families could do was to supply nursing care. It is only in the last century or so that medicine, with drugs and vaccines, have protected or treated people with otherwise fatal illnesses. 

The father of the sick son came to Jesus in desperation, and we are told that he “begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son”. But, today, is that what we have to do with God? When we have a loved one who is seriously ill, do we get on our knees and beg God to do something? I suppose it depends on our relationship with God. Those who don’t know Him will perhaps, in desperation, try anything as a last resort, and this may have been the situation with the civil servant from Capernaum. Sadly, other people will reject the only One who can heal, and instead blame Him for their situation. But the children of God, those who believe in Jesus and have been forgiven of their sins, don’t have to beg. Our loving Heavenly Father knows what we need, and begging is something we don’t have to do.  Instead, we pray the prayer of faith, trusting that God knows best. And as Jesus taught, we pray and keep on praying.

Dear Heavenly Father, You only have good gifts for Your children and You give them so freely when we ask and pray. We are so grateful. Amen.