Healing (Physical-Emotional): When the body breaks down, it rightly cries out for our attention. Displaying a tremendous heart of compassion, Jesus healed everyone brought before Him. He didn’t just do it once. He did it on every recorded occasion. This shows us our Father’s heart as well: No matter how or why we get sick, God wants us healed! Because Jesus is the same today as He was yesterday, you can count on it that He is just as ready and willing to heal us now as He was then.
The Lord also wants to heal us from the inside out. Both Solomon and Jesus declare that the important issues of life flow out from the depths of our hearts. Practically all of us carry stuff from our past which can spill over and influence, even control, the new life that Jesus wants to give us. Emotions that overwhelm us in the present (like fear, anxiety, hurt feelings, anger, depression, etc.) are things God wants to free us from. Go for this glorious liberty!
Just suppose that there really is an invisible kingdom arrayed against you. What good does it do to know that? Is there anything that we can do about it? How does it impact daily life? According to no less an authority than Jesus Christ, we all have an invisible enemy—the “thief”—who comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Why tell us that if it isn’t true? Why burden us with knowing it, unless knowing it would help us? In fact, Jesus spoke of…
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Buried treasure? You’ve got it right there in your “backyard.” The treasure I’m talking about is spiritual growth; your backyard is your past. When I saw this last night, I broke out in such a huge grin—the Lord really knows how to “hide” things in plain sight. Let’s break this down: First, consider that what you need most in life is spiritual growth. Genuine spiritual growth always means that in one situation after another you are learning…
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I was face to face with a monster. The sweet, sad soul opposite me was being squeezed relentlessly by a monster depression, and had been off and on for years. By now, it had rendered him utterly hopeless and physically homeless, barraged hourly by thoughts of stabbing himself. How could I position him for the Lord to set him free? What would you have done? You may ask: Was he a Christian? Yes, but being a Christian can make depression worse, if…
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We hate waiting, especially waiting in lines, don’t we? I’m always looking ahead to see who might hold the line up and why. Yesterday, I read the signs right and escaped a dead-end line at the store just in time to get into one that whisked me through. It doesn’t go like that every time. Here’s a line I can’t avoid. The “prayer lines” we wait in, hoping for changes our loved ones need, can suffer long delays (somebody say amen).Today, the Lord gave me a flash of insight to what often holds things up…
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