2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
By now, I have learned what I think is an important lesson. Even if it seems that we are spending too much time on one subject, in this case God as Jehovah Rapha, the God Who heals, I am to follow the prompting I receive from Him. That is because it has become clear to me that one of the Lord’s key motives here is for us to get to know Him as closely as possible. That motive is clearly borne out of His profound love for us. And so, please be patient with me, as I continue on the path He has laid out for us.
When I was a little girl, I remember an occasion when my mother and I came upon a badly deformed person in a wheelchair. My first reaction was to stare, having never seen a person like this before. My mother quietly admonished me not to do that, so as to not make this person feel self-conscious. Later over lunch, she tried to answer my questions about what made this person so deformed. I share that story, because we see from JN 9: 1-3 that I was hardly the first person to react this way to such a stimulus. “As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man who had been born blind. His disciples asked Him, ‘Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parent’s sin?’ Jesus answered, ‘His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parent’s sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.’” My mother’s answers to my many questions were attempts at possible physical reasons for why the lady in the wheelchair was deformed. It never occurred to her to deal with spiritual ones. I wasn’t even sophisticated enough to ask if sin entered the picture as the disciples did. However, I find Christ’s answer here incredibly compelling to both my experience and that of the disciples. Certainly there are times when I wish that the life’s experience and maturity of a person in her late 50’s could be given to a child of 4 or a teenager, but that is not to be. What it does point up is the value of 1) learning God’s perspective from the Scriptures, and then 2) mentally revisiting experiences of the past in one’s life and placing God’s perspective on them. Just think at the wisdom, reconciliation, and compassion that could come out of doing that! That is truly a form of healing straight from our loving Abba.
After taking Henry Blackaby’s wonderful course, “Experiencing God,” I have been engaging an activity that is bringing all sorts of blessings to my life. I spend time paying attention to God at work in others around me. It’s something I had not done much of before. What I am seeing is amazing. Not only do I see God making others more faithful, trusting, and obedient, but I am seeing Him blessing their lives for it. This is nothing new; God has been doing it for a long time. It’s just relatively new to me. Look at the example of Epaphroditus and the Philippians in PHIL 2: 25-30. “I [Paul] have thought it necessary to send to you our brother, Epaphroditus, who has worked and fought by my side and who has served as your messenger in helping me. He is anxious to see you all and is very upset because you had heard that he was sick. Indeed he was sick and almost died. But God had pity on him, and not only on him but on me, too, and spared me an even greater sorrow. I am all the more eager, then, to send him to you, so that you will be glad again when you see him, and my own sorrow will disappear Receive him, then, with joy, as a brother in the Lord. Show respect to all such people as he, because he risked his life and nearly died for the sake of the work of Christ, in order to give me the help that you yourselves could not give.” The obvious example of healing here was Epaphroditus’ recovery. However, there is an underlying healing brought about by Jehovah Rapha that is just as germane to the value of this story. It is the love and caring that Paul had toward the Philippian believers and Epaphroditus and that which was obviously between Epaphroditus and the Philippians. When people’s lives are led by Satan, they are completely self-centered and disinterested in the welfare of others. The opposite it true when we make Christ the Lord of our lives as these people did. Paul was clearly encouraging the Philippians to see God at work in the lives of others around them. The bottom line is the value to each of us of doing this is to encourage faithfulness by seeing the way that it blesses people’s lives. Our Lord truly loves us and wants to be at work through us to bring as many people to eternal life as possible.
When we really understand the nature of God’s love for us and the healing, both physical and spiritual, that He makes available to us, we can approach the communion table with discernment. In 1 COR 11: 31-32, we are told we should examine ourselves first. “If we would examine ourselves first, we would not come under God’s judgment. But we are judged and punished by the Lord, so that we shall not be condemned together with the world.” We need not fear coming to take communion, because God has made it clear that “if we will confess Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from death, then we will be saved” [RO 10: 9-10]. To be saved is to be forgiven, and forgiveness is a kind of healing of past sins of which we repent. When we have examined our own lives this way and approach communion with having spent time in the faith-building activity of watching God at work in the lives of others around us, this most intimate experience with God can be a more meaningful and important event for us. I believe it is what God wants for us.
PRAYER: O Lord, the messages that You send us from the Scriptures are such vivid and compelling demonstrations of Your love for us that we would be foolish not to recognize that. The lesson of revisiting past (and sometimes painful) experiences viewing them with the perspective that reading Your word gives us can bring extraordinary reconciliation and peace to our lives never possible before. In PHIL 4: 13, You have told us through Paul, “I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.” That has so many ramifications in our willingness to put aside grudges held, in understanding formerly painful childhood experiences, and in seeing a higher perspective (one closer to Yours) on our lives in the past. The opportunity for this kind of peace and reconciliation with people and events from our past and with You is something only You can provide. It is what Paul described in PHIL 4: 7 as “the peace that goes beyond human understanding.” You love us so much that You make us willing to take time to see You at work in others. That builds our faith and allows us to come to the communion table having examined our own lives with openness and honesty. When we do this, we need not fear that we will be condemned with the world. Instead, You offer us healing and peace. You deserve nothing less than our total adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, honor, glory, praise, and thanks for being the Force in our lives that You are. We humbly dedicate our lives to You, Dear Lord. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, the Lord leads me to examine more citations that reveal Him as the great Healer in our lives when we are willing to face Him with openness, honesty, and humility. We will also see ways in the Scriptures that we can help one another come closer to Jehovah Rapha when healing is needed. The kind of obedience to Him that we can show can encourage Him to use His amazing supernatural powers to bring about healing we never thought possible. Know that each of us is surrounded daily by the aura of His love and protection when we acknowledge His mighty presence and power in our lives. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn