TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 17:11-19
TO CHEW ON: "So when He saw then, He said to them, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' And so it was that as they went they were healed." Luke 17:14
If people who followed Jesus' ministry would have tried to predict His mode of healing, they would have been stymied at every turn. He healed in many ways. Here are some from the Gospel of Matthew:
- Jesus healed a leper and several pairs of blind men by touch - Matthew 8:2-3; 9:29-30; 20:34.
- He healed the centurion's son at a distance - Matthew 8:13.
- Sometimes He commanded action on the part of the sick person. He told the paralytic to rise, and the man with the withered hand to stretch it out - Matthew 9:6; 12:13.
- Some people were healed when they touched Jesus' clothes - Matthew 9:22; 14:36.
- Jesus rebuked a demon who had inflicted a little boy with seizures and "…it came out of him and the child was cured that very hour" - Matthew 17:18.
- In our reading today, the lepers were healed "as they went."
Do you pray for the sick to be healed? In the church I attend, the pastor often invites people who have physical illnesses to ask for prayer. I have been among the prayed for and among those who prayed.
There is always a desire to see instantaneous, miraculous, complete, on-the-spot healing. Sometimes that happens. But often not. Here we see that even those who came to Jesus when He was on earth were kept surprised by how He chose to heal them.
We still live in that era of necessary faith as we seek to live out Jesus' mandate: "'Go into all the world and preach the gospel …. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; ... they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover'" - Mark 16:15-18.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, when I am sick, I pray for healing. So do I pray that my ill family members, friends and acquaintances will be healed. May healing balm continue to flow to Your people through Your people. Please give us all faith to believe for the physical healing You have power to give, however You would give it. Amen.
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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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