I had a few Skype meetings today with some awesome people. One of them was with a good friend who is always incredibly encouraging. After talking about some struggles for a while, she reminded me of the words of a song she wrote a few years ago: God is "on our side".
We talked about how God cares about our struggles and actively fights on our behalf. He stops at nothing to win victory for us and to help us through anything that is dragging us down. He offered up His own Son to be brutally beaten so that our own wounds could be healed. We don't need to battle our demons alone, because God is with us. If God is for us, who can be against us? The Creator of the universe who mightily controls all things, that God is standing in our corner cheering us on and picking us up when we fall.
We are never too broken, too sinful, or too lost that God will not sit down with us and love us.
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Cares For Me
God's Spirit goes ahead and guides me. Other people who have thrown themselves into the River of God have been pushed by the Spirit to intercept my paths and carry me back to my Father.
The enemy tried to knock me down, but he knocked me into the River. Now I'm sinking in God's grace and being carried along faster and further than I can go on my own. I'm being carried to places too wonderful for me, seeing things angels long to look into, tasting grace I didn't earn.
The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him. Or in my case, He cares for those who are rebellious but who will come to trust in Him someday. God tells His people "Now I will break the yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away." He's a God who sets us free. An invitation has been extended and the offer for salvation is on the table of the Lord. Not just salvation from sin, but salvation from the fruit of sin: suffering, worry, rage, shame, regret.
The River is the only way to the table and it starts at the cross.
The enemy tried to knock me down, but he knocked me into the River. Now I'm sinking in God's grace and being carried along faster and further than I can go on my own. I'm being carried to places too wonderful for me, seeing things angels long to look into, tasting grace I didn't earn.
The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him. Or in my case, He cares for those who are rebellious but who will come to trust in Him someday. God tells His people "Now I will break the yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away." He's a God who sets us free. An invitation has been extended and the offer for salvation is on the table of the Lord. Not just salvation from sin, but salvation from the fruit of sin: suffering, worry, rage, shame, regret.
The River is the only way to the table and it starts at the cross.
Bad News
My last post dealt with healing. And while I mostly intended to address spiritual healing, physical healing does take place. But not all the time. That's what I'm writing about today—the times when God doesn't answer in the ways we would like or provide the outcome we hoped for. Times when your career falls apart and there's no way to fix it. Or when a relationship ends and all chances of reconciliation goes out the window. Or when a prognosis isn't what you hoped for.
God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants, to whomever He wants, whenever He wants. His plan is always perfect, even if we don't understand it. Sometimes He will crush all hope in one area of our lives in order to divert our attention to His plan.
God didn't sugar coat His news for King Hezekiah. He told him flat-out "you will not recover". Sometimes we work towards a lost cause, pouring so much effort into something that just isn't meant to be. It can be heartbreaking, but God has a purpose.
Personally, I've suffered through trials like that. I've never experienced impending death as Hezekiah did, but dreams of mine have died. I was involved in a long-term relationship. Despite years of effort trying to save things, it continued to crumble. I thought the relationship could be salvaged, but eventually came to realize that it "will not recover". I could continue to agonize over it, torture myself by clinging to a false hope that somehow it will work out. But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes it's best to move on and trust that God's plan, although unseen, is better than our own.
The modern cliche "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" attitude can cause us to force our lives in a direction contrary to God's plan for us. We might be trying to become something He never created us to be. Imagine if King Hezekiah thought there was a chance he could recover. He may have spent all of the kingdom's money on searching for doctors from all over Israel and the surrounding territories. He could have exhausted all their resources on a lost cause. But God, in His mercy, gave insight into the future.
God sees beyond what we can see. He knows that death is not the end.
Hezekiah was a good guy. If you read through the two books of Kings, there were a lot of terrible rulers in Israel and Judah. A lot. But Hezekiah wasn't one of them. He sought God and served Him faithfully during His life. Yet still, he would not recover. Being a disciple of Christ doesn't give you a free pass on pain. It doesn't grant all your wishes or put you in the express lane to success. What it does give you, though, is the assurance that there is hope for peace and joy in the midst of all that. Because of Christ's resurrection, we know that nothing, not even death, can conquer God or stop Him from doing His will. And His will is to do good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28). In His time, in His way, He will do good.
God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants, to whomever He wants, whenever He wants. His plan is always perfect, even if we don't understand it. Sometimes He will crush all hope in one area of our lives in order to divert our attention to His plan.
In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” - 2 Kings: 20:1
God didn't sugar coat His news for King Hezekiah. He told him flat-out "you will not recover". Sometimes we work towards a lost cause, pouring so much effort into something that just isn't meant to be. It can be heartbreaking, but God has a purpose.
Personally, I've suffered through trials like that. I've never experienced impending death as Hezekiah did, but dreams of mine have died. I was involved in a long-term relationship. Despite years of effort trying to save things, it continued to crumble. I thought the relationship could be salvaged, but eventually came to realize that it "will not recover". I could continue to agonize over it, torture myself by clinging to a false hope that somehow it will work out. But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes it's best to move on and trust that God's plan, although unseen, is better than our own.
The modern cliche "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" attitude can cause us to force our lives in a direction contrary to God's plan for us. We might be trying to become something He never created us to be. Imagine if King Hezekiah thought there was a chance he could recover. He may have spent all of the kingdom's money on searching for doctors from all over Israel and the surrounding territories. He could have exhausted all their resources on a lost cause. But God, in His mercy, gave insight into the future.
"You will not recover".
God sees beyond what we can see. He knows that death is not the end.
Hezekiah was a good guy. If you read through the two books of Kings, there were a lot of terrible rulers in Israel and Judah. A lot. But Hezekiah wasn't one of them. He sought God and served Him faithfully during His life. Yet still, he would not recover. Being a disciple of Christ doesn't give you a free pass on pain. It doesn't grant all your wishes or put you in the express lane to success. What it does give you, though, is the assurance that there is hope for peace and joy in the midst of all that. Because of Christ's resurrection, we know that nothing, not even death, can conquer God or stop Him from doing His will. And His will is to do good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28). In His time, in His way, He will do good.
My Healer
The healing power of God cannot be overemphasized. Not just His ability to heal physical diseases or injury, but His unique capability to reach our souls and mend the things that medicine can't dream of touching.
Reading through the Old Testament prophets can be difficult sometimes. It's a awful feeling to read over and over again of Israel's failures, rebellion, and vicious acts of sin. It's even worse to see yourself reflected in those words. But God never convicts without giving hope; He never tears down without a chance to build up; He doesn't inflict injury without offering to heal.
This passage of healing is specifically speaking to those who are contrite (see Isaiah 57:15). "Contrite" people are those who weep over their wrongdoings and are filled with genuine sorrow for their sins. Throughout Jesus' ministry, He preached repentance over and over. This is because it is only those who are contrite that are capable of true repentance. And these are the people God will heal. Sometimes I find myself feeling spiritually lazy and slipping into a lifestyle that is not pleasing to God. During those times I need to pray for eyes to see my sin for what it is; I need to pray that God would allowed me to be mournful over my actions. When I can come to God broken and genuinely repentant, there is healing.
Reading through the Old Testament prophets can be difficult sometimes. It's a awful feeling to read over and over again of Israel's failures, rebellion, and vicious acts of sin. It's even worse to see yourself reflected in those words. But God never convicts without giving hope; He never tears down without a chance to build up; He doesn't inflict injury without offering to heal.
"I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways. I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to them." - Isaiah 57:17-18
This passage of healing is specifically speaking to those who are contrite (see Isaiah 57:15). "Contrite" people are those who weep over their wrongdoings and are filled with genuine sorrow for their sins. Throughout Jesus' ministry, He preached repentance over and over. This is because it is only those who are contrite that are capable of true repentance. And these are the people God will heal. Sometimes I find myself feeling spiritually lazy and slipping into a lifestyle that is not pleasing to God. During those times I need to pray for eyes to see my sin for what it is; I need to pray that God would allowed me to be mournful over my actions. When I can come to God broken and genuinely repentant, there is healing.
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