This weeks Devotions

MONDAY 6TH FEBRUARY
2 Kings 5:1-14
The humble way to healing

When Naaman the commander of the Syrian army got leprosy he was very distressed. It meant he would have to go and live on his own cut off from family and friends. His Israelite slave girl gave him a glimmer of hope. She told him of the prophet in her home town who could heal him. Soon he was on his way and had met up with Elisha. But when the man of God told him to go and wash seven times in the Jordan River he got angry, his pride welled up and he refused. He went off miserable like a dog with its tail between its legs. Naaman’s servants knew all about humility, they were humbled by their master every day. They persuaded him to eat some humble pie and do what the prophet said. So, in and out, in and out, of the cool refreshing Jordan he dipped seven times. When he came out the seventh time all the leprosy was gone!

When people find themselves, or their loved ones, with incurable diseases they get very angry at God and blame Him for it. Those who remain angry at God suffer terribly but others, who realise that God is their only hope in the situation, humbly turn to Him, crying out for help. If they stay humble and be obedient to God they discover He is a God of compassion, always ready to help them. Miracles often happen when we pray and listen to God. When we feel He’s prompting us to do something and do it, the miracle happens!

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for being a compassionate God always ready to help us when things go wrong and we get angry. Help us to swallow our pride and humbly trust in you and obey what ever you tell us to do. Help us trust in your healing power through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

TUESDAY 7TH FEBRUARY
Psalm 30
I called to you for help and you healed me

As we read this Psalm we pick up the tremendous joy of one who has suddenly been healed of an incurable disease. He was going to die but now he is alive. He is so grateful to God. As he exalts God and is so thankful his joy bursts out like a beautiful, majestic butterfly bursting out of its cocoon. He has been in the depths of suffering. It was so awful. He had felt guilty, as if God was angry with him. He had shed so many tears! We often meet people like this when a sudden tragedy has struck their lives, when they or a loved one has been stricken with incurable cancer or something terrible has happened in their lives. When he realized there was nothing he could do in the situation he cried out to the only one who could help him. The Lord heard his prayer and set him free from the cause of his suffering! He had made the wonderful discovery that God’s anger lasts but a moment, but his favour lasts a life time; that when God hears our prayers our weeping soon turns to joy!

We don’t have to wait until the final answers to our prayers for us to be joyful and thankful. The Bible says “For the joy that was set before Him Jesus endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). When Judas betrayed Him and His suffering began, He called out, “Now the Son of Man is glorified” (John 13:31). After we have experienced a few answers to our prayers we come to know how loving and compassionate God really is! We sense that He will always keep His promises. When we cry out to Him in times of distress we know He will answer and so our hearts are filled with joy. His joy soon drowns out our suffering and we can leap and dance till the suffering goes and then even more because the suffering has gone.

PRAYER: Father our hearts leap with joy when we realize how good you are. We pray for all people who are in the depths of suffering and grief right now. Deliver them, set them free that they may see your favour lasts a lifetime and you turn all weeping into joy, through Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 8TH FEBRUARY
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Run to get the Prize

Many people are now in training for the next Olympic Games and all hope to win a Gold Medal. In the original Olympic Games the prize was a laurel wreath, a prize that would soon wither and die.

Paul tells us in today’s reading that living out the Christian life is like competing in the Olympic Games but it’s much better. In the games, all train very hard and put in a lot of energy but only one person gets the prize, not a temporary one but a gold crown that will last forever. This crown is a symbol of the eternal life Jesus promises all those who will stay in the race with Him.

Here is a story from the 1988 Olympic Games. Hours behind the runner in front of him, the last marathoner finally entered the Olympic stadium. By that time, the drama of the day’s events was almost over and most of the spectators had gone home. The athlete’s story however, was still being played out! Limping into the arena, the Tanzanian runner grimaced with every step, his knee bleeding and bandaged from an earlier fall. His ragged appearance immediately caught the attention of the remaining crowd who cheered him on to the finishing line. Why did he stay in the race? What made him endure his injuries to the end? When asked these questions later, he replied, “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."

Maybe you or someone you know is at the stage when you feel like giving up. Don’t you, or don’t let them! God loves failures. Stay in the race, keep looking to Jesus and the prize will be yours.

PRAYER: Father thank you that all who run in the Christian race receive the prize of eternal life. When we feel like we have failed and feel like giving up help us to keep going with our eyes fixed on Jesus, through the same Jesus our prize giver. Amen.

THURSDAY 9TH FEBRUARY
John 5:1-9
Do you want to get well?

There was in Jerusalem a special pool that was well known for its healing power. Sick people gathered around the water waiting for it to be stirred, and when it did the first sick person to jump in was cured. Jesus came by the pool and noticed a man who had been ill for a long time. He never got healed because his sickness did not allow him to be fast enough to get into the pool first. Jesus must have thought, “why does he bother to come to the pool if he knows he will never be able to get in first?” So He asked him the question, “Do you want to get well”?

Sometimes people are not healed because they don’t want to be healed, even though they might not realise this. They love the extra attention they get because of their illness. Jesus will only heal us and forgive us if we want Him to help us and if we want to be healed! Once He realises that we want to be healed, one word from Him and we are healed. It’s God’s will that all people are healed and set free from sin. It’s a mistake to think that it’s God’s will for us to remain sick or God’s will for us to go on sinning. When God sees that we believe it’s His will for us to be healed and when we really want Him to heal us, He speaks the word to our sickness and it goes. He pushes out our sins and they fade away. All God said to the man was, “get up and walk” and he did. Jesus told him to stop sinning so that his sickness would not come back. So often, leading a sinful life and disobeying God, causes us to get sick.

PRAYER: Father thank you that you assure us that it’s your will to keep us free from sickness and sin. Help us to want to be healed and set free from sin so you can speak the word and make us whole through Jesus our Healer and Saviour. Amen.

FRIDAY 10TH FEBRUARY
1 John 3:15-24
Trust and Obey

We often sing the Hymn:
“Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey”.

The more we obey the Lord, the more we will find our prayers being answered and the happier we will be. All Jesus’ commands to us are summed up in one command:
“Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Our reading today spells out a bit how Jesus wants us to love one another. He begins by saying there is no room for hate. He equates hate with murder and says that no murderer has eternal life. If you hate anyone, whatever they have done to you, you must stop hating them now and forgive them for hurting you. Jesus loved us by laying down His life for us and so He wants us to lay down our lives for each other! He wants us to do this in very practical ways. If we have plenty and we see another member of the church really struggling and do nothing about it, is the love of God in us? To lay down our lives for our brothers means to have pity on them and give to them when they are in need. Once we know that we are obeying God in these ways our conscience is clear and our hearts do not condemn us. This is when we discover more of our prayers being answered. Jesus said, “Forgive and you will be forgiven, give, and it will be given unto you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:37-38).

Once we are generous and always loving and forgiving, we show God to others. The way we love others indicates that we really do love Him. That’s when He gets more generous with us and “we receive from him anything we ask”. (v22).

PRAYER: Father, thank you for showing us that our whole relationship with you is built on love. We love you because you laid down your life for us. Help us to love you more by laying down our lives for each other, always willing to forgive each other and giving to each other, through Jesus our loving Saviour. Amen.

SATURDAY 11TH FEBRUARY
Mark 1:40-45
Of course I want to

This leper came up to Jesus and said “if you want to you can make me clean”. Whenever Jesus saw a person suffer like this He was always filled with compassion so He replied, “Of course I want to”. Instantaneously the leper was cured. Many times after Jesus had healed people He said to them, “Your faith has healed you”. It’s faith in the power of Jesus to heal us that enables us to receive the healing He is longing to give us! One of the stumbling blocks which prevent people from receiving their healing is when they tack onto their healing, “if it be your will”. So often we think we don’t have enough faith but we want people around us to think that we have faith. Saying “if it be your will” at the end of our prayer can make us seem that we are full of faith even though there is no evidence of it! If you list all the accounts of Jesus healing people it makes you more certain that it’s His will to heal everyone. God permits sickness but He hates it because He hates seeing people suffer. Not once did Jesus ever refuse to heal a person.

Because the mountains of our sicknesses and problems are so huge and our faith is so small it takes us time to receive our healing. The best approach to praying for healing is to accept that it’s God’s will for us to be healed. (Hear him saying “of course I want to” (Colossians 4:2). As you see the tiniest improvement, heartily thank the Lord. Many people have done this and gradually they have seen their prayers answered and their sickness and problems completely disappearing.

PRAYER: Jesus, we thank you that you love us all so much that you want to heal us and answer all our prayers. Help us all to believe it’s your will to heal us and give us a tiny bit of faith in your great power to heal. Help us to watch and pray with thanksgiving till you have completed our healing. Amen.

SUNDAY12TH.FEBRUARY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

A man with the dreaded disease of leprosy came up to Jesus and said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was filled with compassion for the man who was suffering so much. He reached out his hand and touched him and said, “I am willing, be clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Although Jesus told him not to tell anyone, he was so thrilled and excited about his healing that he went out and blazed abroad what Jesus had done for him. Jesus became so popular that He was crowded out of the towns. He went out into the countryside and people flocked to Him in their thousands.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Over the years I have been thrilled to see Jesus working many miracles. So many have been healed by Him and so many lives have been transformed. Years ago Wendy’s back was healed enabling her to go on and have ten children. Bishop Bevan Meredith was healed of cancer, Andrea was healed of leukaemia and Hope’s kidneys were healed.. Many others have testified about the miracles Jesus has done for them in answer to prayer.

Jesus is sad because lots of people who live all around us have fallen away from Him and many find it hard to believe in Him. Jesus loves them all very much and has lots of compassion for them. He longs for everyone to come to Him. It’s up to us to follow the example of the healed leper and go out and tell everyone just how fantastic Jesus is and all about all that He has done for us!

In his book, “China’s Christian Millions,’ Tony Lambert tells us of the remarkable church growth that has happened in China in the last three decades. When the communists came to power they tried their Hardest to completely wipe out Christianity. In 1949 all western missionaries were expelled. In the Cultural Revolution, during the sixties and seventies, all the churches were closed. This could not stop Jesus working! So the churches went underground and many people came to faith in Him. As people received remarkable healings, some even rose from the dead, they told everyone around them and people flocked in to find out about Jesus. Soon the church began to grow at a phenomenal rate. Now there are over 100 million Christians in China! Isn’t it wonderful – people are still flocking to See Jesus!!!

PRAYER: Jesus we thank you that You show us, in today’s readings that you are always willing to heal. Thank you for your great compassion and love for all people. Thank you for all the miracles you keep on doing! Empower us with your Holy Spirit to tell as many people as we can how fantastic You are and how much you want to help them and heal them. Amen.