Category: Gospels
Healing the Brokenhearted
Scripture reading for September 24: Psalm 147:2-6 “The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of stars; He gives all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked to the ground.”
Matthew 9:11-12 “And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard it, He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.””
As we conclude the healing verses from Psalms, we come to Psalm 147. This psalm boasts of God’s plan to build up Jerusalem, the city of the Great King. God would build it up by gathering the outcasts of Israel and healing the brokenhearted and downcast. As God has amazing power over the universe, the psalmist declares God’s ability to determine the exact number of stars and call each one by name. In fact, the understanding of God is beyond man’s capacity to measure or understand. But this amazing and powerful God lifts up those who humbly acknowledge their weakness and need. He also will judge the wicked who refuse to come to Him for healing.
This passage reminds us of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Who came to seek and save the lost sheep of Israel. He went to Jerusalem to declare God’s healing grace and preach the Good News. He declared that those who were well did not need a physician, but the sick did. He called sinners, not the righteous. His message went initially to the Israel, but was to be taken to the whole world. As He knows the stars and calls them by name, so God knows the Names of those who are His and records them in His Book of Life!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for healing the brokenhearted and binding up their wounds. Thank You for coming for the humble, the hurting and the wounded. You give us new life eternal and new names as members of Your eternal family! Use me to help build up the New Jerusalem. Amen!
God’s Healing Word!
Scripture reading for September 22: Psalm 107:17-21 “Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, and for His wondrous works to the children of man!”
Luke 7:6-7 “”Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the Word, and let my servant be healed.””
Psalm 107 encourages those helped and delivered by the Lord to testify of God’s saving grace. The verses we are reading today tell of a foolish person who through their own sinful ways had encountered consequences of severe affliction that brought them near to death. They had no appetite and no hope, but in this extreme distress, they called upon the Lord. God hears and quickly answers, by sending His Word to heal them and deliver them from the destruction of dying in their sins. It is interesting to note that God didn’t withhold His Word of healing because this sickness was a result of personal sins. His grace was extended to this one who humbly asked without merit. This healing deserves great thanksgiving and testimony of God’s wonderous mercy to all mankind!
In Luke’s Gospel, he records the story of the centurion who asked Jesus to come heal his servant who was at death’s door. As Jesus went, the centurion sent messengers to ask Jesus to not come but only say the Word. Even as a Gentile, he understood authority and the power of a Word of God. As a centurion, he commanded a hundred men using his voice to speak instruction. Jesus marveled at his faith and sent His Word and the servant was healed instantly. These events are recorded Word’s of God to bring faith to His people. We can receive healing by faith in God’s eternal Word, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh! (John 1:14)
Prayer: Thank You Father for sending Your Word in the form of Your Son. As He has demonstrated and spoken, His Word brings healing and deliverance. I receive this Word! Amen!
All God’s Benefits!
Scripture reading for September 21: Psalm 103:1-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, Who forgives all your iniquity, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?””
King David wrote this psalm as a worship prayer and aid to remembering and focusing on God and His many benefits. David was thankful for God’s forgiveness of many besetting sins. He had asked for mercy when he committed adultery and then had his partner’s husband purposely killed. (Psalm 51) David had suffered sickness and God had healed him many times. David also realized that his sins would lead to eternal suffering in the pit and that God’s great mercy had spared him and given him what he did not deserve, steadfast love and mercy. (Psalm 40) David declared his faith in eternal life and joy in God’s presence forever. (Psalm 16) This is possibly the reason behind his declaration that his strength would be renewed to youth like the eagle. This was a powerful metaphor taken from nature and God’s restoration of the eagle.
As Mary and Martha were dejected at the passing of their brother Lazarus, Jesus came and declared that He was the resurrection and the life eternal in God’s presence. Jesus said this at the grave of His friend Lazarus who had been dead four days. He then called Lazarus out of the grave, renewing his strength as a testimony that still speaks to us today. Jesus is the source of all God’s benefits and blessings. He deserves our worship and total trust.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the blessings and provisions given me by grace through believing in Jesus Christ. He has forgiven all my sins, healed all my diseases, redeemed my life from the pit and destruction and given me eternal life in His presence! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Amen!
Standing on the Promises of God!
Scripture reading for September 17: Psalm 91:9-11; 14-16 “Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place–the Most High, Who is my Refuge--no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” . . .“Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My Name. When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Psalm 91 has been a favorite of soldiers, first responders, and all who face dangers, sickness or demonic attack. The psalm is full of promises from God Himself about how He will act on behalf of those who by faith are depending on Him. The psalm begins with four names of God: Most High, Almighty, Lord, and my God. These names honor God for Who He is and set the tone for this worship song. The psalmist begins to recount all the benefits of trusting in God. Deliverance from snares and traps, escape from pestilence, war, and evil and the evil one are all noted blessings.
God, Himself through the psalmist promises His people in the verses we read today. God will be a Refuge to His people against all forms of trouble, sickness or evil. God as the ‘Almighty’ will command the angel armies to guard them and bear them up. Those who hold fast to God are promised deliverance and protection. They are promised answers to their prayer and God’s personal presence with them in these troubles. Note that the absence of trouble is not promised. In this world we will have tribulation but Jesus promised He has overcome the world. We will have long life–eternal life–in His presence and enjoy His full salvation.
Prayer: Holy Father and Almighty Most High God, thank You for Your promised protection and overcoming grace through faith in Your Son. You are My Father and God forever. Amen.
God’s Promised Faithfulness!
Scripture reading for September 17: Psalm 94:14-19 “For the Lord will not forsake His people; He will not abandon His heritage; for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, “My foot slips,” Your steadfast love, O Lord held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, Your consolations cheer my soul.”
Matthew 28:20 “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This psalmist was worshiping God by recounting God’s presence and help in times of trouble and enemies attacking. His major theme was that God would not forsake His people. God was not fickle, but steadfast in His love through all trials and every valley we might face. Though man may forsake us or turn on us, God will never abandon us. The psalmist even stated that if God had not been with him and helped him, he would now be dead. Even when fear gripped his heart, God sent His steadfast covenant love and held him up. When cares and anxiety multiplied, God sent consolations to cheer his soul. This recounting of God’s presence and care brought consolation and renewed faith and is even now bringing that to believers.
This theme was continued in Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples. He sent them out into all the world to proclaim the Good News through preaching, healing and deliverance through the Holy Spirit, God’s presence with them. They were to help others know God by bearing His presence and heart of mercy. His promise to them was that He would be with them always, even to the end of the age!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your promise of continual presence that has sustained and comforted believers since the beginning. You are the Faithful God Who will never abandon Your people! Hold me up each day and bring consolations that cheer my soul! As from the beginning, You are faithful to the end! Amen!
Declaring God’s Power
Scripture reading for September 10: Psalm 71:17-19 “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim Your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim Your might to another generation, Your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the high heavens. You Who have done great things, O God, who is like You?”
Mark 16:15-16 “He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. . . . and these signs shall accompany those who believe: in My Name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.””
Psalm 71 does not list an author, but from the content we know that it was an older believer who had known God from his youth. Now, later in his life, he offers this hymn of worship and intercession to be sung by the congregation. He declares the wondrous works of the Lord and exalts Him. He humbly asks not to be forsaken in old age, but to become empowered to declare God’s wonder and power to the next generation. Aging has distinct challenges for most people. We sense our abilities physically slowing down and we are aware of the battle against our faith by a deceptive enemy, Satan. This psalmist’s intercession for God’s help was answered and is available to all today.
According to Jesus Christ, the mission of His disciples was one of declaring God’s love and power to those who did not know about it. He would work with them as they were going to demonstrate and declare the Good News of Jesus Christ by deliverance from evil spirits, healing of sick or deformed bodies, being supernaturally protected and showing God’s heart of mercy. In the New Testament, Jesus took disciples from different age groups. He gave them spiritual empowerment to declare God’s power and promised to never leave or forsake them.
Father God, thank You for answering prayers from older believers that may be under physical or spiritual attack. Thank You for empowering Your people to declare your power and love to a lost world. I worship the Ancient of Days and declare Him! Amen.
Make Haste, O God!
Scripture reading for September 9: Psalm 70:1, 4-5 “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!. . .”May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You! May those who love Your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! Your are my Help and my Deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!”
John 11:5-6 “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”
All people who are caught in a crisis of disease and pain want quick answers. Those who seek God for help soon learn that God hears and answers prayers, but that His timing is not always our timing or our expectation. King David wrote Psalm 70 for the memorial offering and it was given to the choirmaster. This prayer and praise song seeks to entreat God to make haste to bring deliverance and help. David confessed his own need of God, that before God he was poor and needy. He stated that God was his Help and Deliverer. He appealed to God to end the delay and bring the help needed immediately! I have been there and am there now as our family is going through a difficult illness.
John, the apostle, records an incident he witnessed where Jesus was told about a friend’s illness and asked to respond. The family had requested that Jesus come and they were hoping for immediate results. But Jesus knew and loved His friend and delayed coming for two more days. In the mean time, Lazarus had died and his body was placed in a tomb. Mary and Martha were concerned that Jesus had delayed, but still trusted that God would answer their prayers. Jesus wept over the death of His friend, and stood at the tomb and called him to come out. Lazarus got up and came out, decked in the grave wrappings and God was glorified. God’s timing fulfills His purposes.
Prayer: Father God, we ask you to make haste and not delay to help us and deliver us from our current situation. But we trust You as our Healer and Deliverer to be on time! Help me to wait in faith and patience. Amen.
Jesus’ Shining Face!
Scripture reading for September 8: Psalm 67:1-3, 6-7 “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You!” . . . “The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear Him.”
John 20:21-22 “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.“
Today’s psalm comes from a worshiper in Israel and was sent to the choirmaster as a song. It was a prayer for God’s grace and favor to be made known among His people. The Aaronic blessing was part of this song, and asked God to turn His shining and glorious face towards His people. This wasn’t just for a supernatural experience, but to fulfill God’s stated purpose of showing His saving and healing power to all the nations of the earth. As Israel sang praises to their Lord, Who was smiling on them and pleased with them, they would enjoy the blessings of His grace in salvation and forgiveness of sins, deliverance from their enemies, and healing of their sicknesses and diseases. All the ends of the earth would be drawn to the God Who smiles and blesses His people. The earth would yield its increase and God would pour out more blessings on all who praised Him. As praises go up, blessings come down.
God answered the prayer of this worshiper in the sending of His Son to reveal the smiling and gracious face of the Father Who wanted to pour out blessing on His people. God the Father sent His Son to heal the sick, deliver the bound, and seek and save the lost. He recruited disciples who would take His blessing to the ends of the earth. To equip them, He looked each one in the face and breathed on them, giving them the Father’s blessing–the Holy Spirit. They were sent in His peace to do as Jesus did!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for turning Your smiling face upon us and giving us grace and blessings. May we who have believed obey Your simple instructions to take this Good News to all the earth! Amen.
God Reveals the Path of Life!
Scripture reading for August 31: Psalm 16:7-11 “I bless the Lord Who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one come to the Father except through Me.”
The psalmist was worshiping God with this psalm of declaration. He declared God as his Counselor, who is instructing him in the night seasons when darkness seeks to overwhelm. He declared that God is his “right hand” and that makes him secure in the darkness and shaking of the enemy. He declared that his flesh would dwell secure and that he lived a life of rejoicing because of God’s presence. In his rejoicing, he declared his belief that God would not abandon him to the place of the departed dead or allow his flesh to see decay. In God, he has found the path of eternal life leading to God’s presence and fullness of joy forever.
Our health and mental well-being are tied to our faith in God. When we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth the sufficiency of God to meet our deepest needs, our faith brings vision and revelation of God’s ‘path of life’ available to all through faith. Jesus declared that He Alone was the Way to the Father and in Him was eternal life. These truths reveal to those who will believe that the path of life eternal is found in a relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is raised from the dead and now seated at God’s right hand. In Him we are seated there as well and find eternal pleasures forever!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for revealing the only path to Life eternal and joy forever in Your Son Jesus, our Lord! I bless the Lord at all times and His praise is in my heart and mouth. Amen!
Stronghold for the oppressed!
Scripture reading for August 27th: Psalm 9:9-11 “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. Sing praises to the Lord, Who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples His deeds!”
John 16:23-24 “In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
There are many kinds of oppression in our fallen world. People are often oppressed because of prejudice against races or nationalities. They may be mocked and relegated to the lowest place in a country or people group. They may be taken advantage of or sold into slavery for labor or sexual pleasure. The psalmist declares a truth about His Lord concerning oppression and those in trouble: God is faithful! All who put their trust in Him and know His Name, calling on Him and seeking His help will never be forsaken or left to the enemy.
The Name of the Lord often declares His character and benefits. In the last devotion we found that God was our Shield, Glory, and the lifter of our heads. God is our Healer, providing remedy for disease as well as protection from disease. In the New Testament, Jesus encouraged His disciples to begin asking the Father directly in His Name for whatever they had need of and they would receive it. Our Lord Jesus is truly a ‘Stronghold’ in times of trouble or oppression. No weapon formed against us will prosper! Our God shall meet all our needs according to His riches in Glory in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer: Father, in Jesus’ Name, we take You at Your Word today and ask You to lift our oppression from sickness and disease. You Alone are our Stronghold in oppression. We will worship You and tell among the peoples Your amazing deeds of answering our prayers! Amen!