Healing Power

Key Verse: Luke 8:50b

“…Don’t be afraid. Just have faith and she will be healed”

Additional Reading: Luke 8:40-56

Do you ever envy the people that witnessed the miracles of Jesus or knew others that witnessed them? I catch myself wishing that we could see around our churches and in our homes such mighty miracles today!

It’s amazing that the woman with serious health issues (for twelve years) was immediately healed with one touch of Jesus’s clothes. I want to see and experience that kind of power and wonderful work.

And how about when the leader of a local synagogue came to Jesus wanting help for his daughter who was dying? I wish I walked that short journey to the leader’s home and witnessed the raising of his daughter from the dead! I would guess that these would be “wow” moments in all our lives, had we been able to see them!

So, what should be the “take away” from these two stories in our reading for today and all the miracles that we read about in the scriptures?

I realize that there some Christians proclaim that Jesus will do these some miracles today, if we will only have faith! Well, I believe that that is only partially true.

Certainly, one of the lessons is that faith is essential to obtain miracles in your life. However, looking at other references in the Bible, we realize that there are times when God didn’t heal someone. And it wasn’t because of a lack of faith.

In 2 Timothy 4:20, we read that the Apostle Paul left a man named Trophimus who was ill in a town called Miletus. I’ve read that reference many times and always wondered why Paul wouldn’t simply pray over him and ask God to heal him. Although the scriptures don’t tell us this, I believe that Paul did pray over Trophimus for healing. But it wasn’t God’s Will to heal him. The Apostle Paul accepted that and moved on to another town. Surely no one is willing to seriously think the Apostle Paul didn’t have enough faith to bring God’s healing over this man!

In other words, no amount of faith in any situation is going to negate God’s will. We can’t demand for God to heal someone, like some modern-day preachers propose. God works in mysterious ways. We may never know why He chooses to heal in some cases and not in others.

In the infant stage of God’s church, God did miraculous things to keep His church growing. This was the time depicted in the New Testament when the Bible was being written. Now, Bibles are available to most of the world. The church is more mature. He expects us to trust His will in all situations!

Father, help me to walk in faith, asking for great things but willing to accept your will in all my request. In Jesus’s Name, amen.