Saved and Healed

On July 6, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 107: 19 – 22

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of His works with joyful singing.

Happy Monday all! I pray you are well and longing for a fresh word from the Lord. This psalm is a favorite of mine because it tells of God sending us His Word and the impact it has on human life. The Word heals. Amen.

I have this psalm, specifically verse 20, among the scriptures I give to people when they have need of physical healing. Of course, it is equally applicable to emotional or mental healing as well. I have also used it in the Word of the Day at least 18 times. I believe it has a strong message that will feed life to us. Today, however, I was equally struck by the verses accompanying verse 20 because together they tell a potent story. In context we learn that the people cried out to the Lord in their day of trouble. I cannot think of a period, in my lifetime, when we have been in greater trouble. When the people spoken of in this psalm cried out to the Lord, he saved them from their distress.

This causes me to wonder if we have really cried out to the Lord out of our distress. Do we vent our spleen on Facebook instead of crying out to the Lord with the anguish we feel? Have we actually come to grips with how we feel, or do we sublimate those emotions? It does not seem that we call out to God with the same passion that we give to our remonstrations. Isn’t that the conclusion we must come to since we have not been saved from our present peril? Mustn’t we conclude that either God does not save or we have not cried out to Him? One of the two must be true. I cannot believe my God does not save or that His arm is too short to save. And if that is true, then there must be some other explanation. Looking at this model, I have to presume that the first condition has not been met.

Were you to read the whole psalm, you would see that the author tells of several times when the people cried out to the Lord in their distress and in each case, God saved them. If He saved them, why would He not save us? Did He love them more than He loves us? Were their lives more precious to Him than are ours? Surely not! So, I have to believe that the Lord, our God and Father, is still able and very willing to extend His hand of salvation to us today. Let us not forsake the end of this passage, however. Those saints gave the Father praise and thanksgiving. They sang with a joyful song the good news of the God who saves.

I wish I could get this devotional into the hands of every Christian in the world and I wish that each one of those persons would find inspiration herein that would create a worldwide outpouring of passionate prayer to the Father, who is Lord. I wish that those who may not know Christ personally would turn their hearts, with us, to the one who saves and would cry out for help, and I wish that our lands would be healed, that we would unite under one banner, the banner of Christ, that our eyes would look well beyond politicians, medical personnel, and even friends to be fixed on the one who is well able to rescue us from this present trouble. I wish we would turn off the news and instead search God’s Word and our own hearts for real answers. Give me the good news!!! Tell me what God has to say about the problems which confront us. Demand answers of Him and listen. Join in one voice to the Great Almighty who loves us. Believe with all your heart that He does love us and is willing to save. Call upon Him with an impassioned demand. Let us cry out to our Father. Let’s really do it. Tell all your friends. Stir up the fire in your heart and cry out to the Lord. Father, send your Word and heal us!

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Believer Receiver

On September 30, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Mark 11: 24

Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.

If you want to receive, then you must believe. I was imagining a football wide receiver running down the field anticipating a reception. You know, those guys want to catch the football, they want the quarterback to throw it to them. They are eager and they believe that if the ball is thrown to them, they will receive. I imagine, though, that if they ran down the field not expecting the ball, not believing the quarterback will pass to them, that it would be quite difficult, if not impossible, to receive. There is a direct connection between believing and receiving. Jesus certainly makes that point in today’s passage.

There are three words in this verse that stand out to me. They are pray, believe and receive. That is basically the formula. There is, however, another word which is perhaps the most important in the verse. That word is “have”. Jesus said that as we pray we should believe that we HAVE received. In other words, we should believe that we have already received that for which we petition him. If we want our petitions granted then we must believe that we have received. 

This is a very radical way of thinking. It certainly is not the way we were taught as we grew up. We were taught, at least most of us, that seeing is believing. What you see is true. It is reality. Unfortunately, that logic does not hold in the Kingdom of heaven. If you wait to see it in order to believe it, you will be waiting a long time.

A pastor friend of mine was accosted this weekend by a “believer” (complete misnomer) who was perplexed about a prayer of his. He had prayed for someone to be healed and that person was still exhibiting symptoms. He questioned why his prayer had not been answered. There are two faith answers to his question. First, who says it hasn’t been answered. If you prayed, believing then Jesus said your petition will be granted. Secondly, I want to ask, “Where is your believing?” Is he praying believing or praying hoping? He looked at the evidence from the world and concluded that his prayer had not been answered. Well, he is going to have a hard time because clearly he is not in belief. That is big time doubt. Jesus didn’t say to look to the evidence of the world for ratification. As a matter of fact, that is the absolute worst thing you can do. Where, do you suppose, that information comes from? Well, from the world at best, so it is carnal not of faith and certainly not of the Kingdom. Worst case scenario, it is the evidence that the devil is presenting. Why do want to believe that? No, you can’t believe what your eyes see, you must believe what the Word says. You have to let that Word from God issue from your heart and overwhelm your believer. Then if the worldly evidence does not agree you get to choose who to believe. If you stick with Jesus then he will grant your petition. If you choose to side with the world’s view of circumstances then that is the result you have selected.

The one thing that seems to trip up people the most is the duration of belief. We stand in prayer and during that time we confess our belief. We screw up our faith and commit our hopes and prayers to Jesus. Then here comes the problem – after we pray, we run out to the world to “see” if our prayer has come true. So, we are letting the evidence of the world validate the Word of God. Instead, your belief needs to survive beyond the duration of the prayer. If you believed, then keep on believing. So when you see that friend still sick your response is, “No, I have believed he is healed so I receive that healing and will not be talked out of it.”

Christians are often called believers. I think we need to make that a true declaration of how we interact with the world and with the Kingdom of God. Believing really is not some big “faith” thing, it is a obstinance thing, a decision really. Just refuse to be dissuaded. You have all the faith you need. Now, do you have all the resolve you need? Believe and keep on believing. Pray, expect and receive. It is time for you to look back up field for the ball coming towards you. Open your eyes, open your heart and receive.

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