We continue in our series Hope found Here and on this Healing and Wholeness Sunday what I want us to consider this morning is Hope in the Call of Help.
Do you need to call out to God for Healing? Is there an aspect of your life where you need God to step in? Are you brokenhearted? Do you feel crushed? Are you experiencing trouble in your life? Do you need God to rescue you?
Listen to the words of Psalm 34:17-20, The LORD hears His people when they call to Him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time. For the LORD protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken!
These words are a comforting truth for each and every one of us this morning - The LORD hears His people when they call to Him for help. God is able to rescue you Spiritually, Physically and Emotionally. Throughout history, God has brought healing and wholeness into many people’s lives and God still heals today.
The most wonderful healing that any of us can ever experience is Spiritual Healing. When we repent and turn to Jesus as Lord and Saviour all of our Sin is dealt with and we are assured of a place in Heaven. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus make Spiritual healing for all who trust in Him possible.
I do not claim to be a healer, it is God alone who heals. At the end of the service, if you want to be prayed for, I will stand with you and pray in faith that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will bring healing and wholeness into your life. All healing comes from God, not man. Jesus is the great physician and God can perform a miracle in your life or He can give skills and wisdom to Doctors and Surgeons to prescribe medication or perform operations. Physical healing is one of the mysteries of God, I can not explain why God chooses to physically heal some people and not others - but I trust God in all that He chooses to do.
There is an old poem by Annie Johnson Flint that says:
He gives more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sends more strength when the labours increase,
To added affliction, He adds His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men,
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He gives and gives and gives again.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed and the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
Do you need an outpouring of God’s grace on your life today? Do you need God to strengthen you? Do you need God’s peace? This morning as you call to God in faith, you may not experience physical healing but you can experience God’s limitless grace and mercy and love.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:33-36, How great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give Him advice? And who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to Him forever! Amen.
The Apostle Paul had something that he described as a thorn in the flesh, some kind of problem that he prayed to be healed from, yet God chose not to heal him in the way Paul wanted to be healed. Listen to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 where the Apostle Paul writes, To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God does not always do what we want Him to do. God does not always do things when we want them done. Sometimes God says yes, sometimes God says no, and sometimes God says wait. But, when you call out to God, the power of Christ can work in you and through you. When you are weak, He is strong. He is your rock,
He is your fortress, His grace is sufficient for you. Jesus can choose to heal you physically, spiritually, emotionally, He has the power to heal, will you call out to Him today?
Some people are afraid to call out to Jesus. Matthew chapter 9(v20-22), records there was a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, she chose not to call out to Jesus, instead, she crept up behind Him and touched the fringe of Jesus’ robe. Perhaps she thought Jesus was too busy to listen. Perhaps she thought someone else has a need that was greater than her own. Or maybe because of her continual bleeding, she knew she would have been regarded by Jewish law as a niddah or menstruating woman, ceremonially unclean.
To be regarded as clean, the flow of blood would need to stop for at least 7 days. She had been constantly bleeding for twelve years, she lived in a continual state of uncleanness, she would have experienced social and religious isolation and calling out to Jesus would have brought unwanted attention from the crowd of people who were there. So instead of calling out to Jesus for help, for healing, she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
The Gospels of Mark and Luke record that Jesus instantly knew Healing Power had been released. This desperate woman reached out to Jesus in faith and was healed.
Jesus in the middle of a crowd of people, many of whom probably touched Him, but none of them was healed. This woman’s touch was a touch of genuine faith and a miracle happened.
Jesus turns and asks who had reached out and touched Him. His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” Jesus kept looking around to see who had touched Him. Then the woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done. Instead of rebuking the woman for disobeying Jewish Law Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” Too scared to call out she reached out in genuine faith and was totally healed.
Throughout the Gospels Jesus healed the sick; the blind man at the pool of Siloam, the paralytic lowered through the roof.
Jesus travelled through the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And He healed every kind of disease and illness. In one village, ten men with leprosy approached Jesus. They stood at a distance and called out, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ On their way, they were healed.
I wonder if Jesus was disappointed that only one of the lepers He healed came back to thank Him. The healed leper came back shouting praises to God and bowed down at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. Many who ask for healing forget it is God alone who heals. Many forget to thank God for what He has done, what He is doing and what He will do.
As we come to our time of prayer. Jesus continues to heal those who come to Him in faith. Will you call out to Him this morning for help?
