Stars, Miracles, Hearts
I promise, they are related. Stars: I remember years ago reading a book that talked about how Reggie White’s (famous NFL star for any young in’s) testimony has more value than my grandmothers. The fallacy lies in our notion that the value of a testimony is in proportion to the popularity of said person. My faith has more value because a popular person believes the same as me. My grandmother’s testimony bears no weight as no one knows her. It very well could be the exact opposite as a heritage is a spectacular thing, but that’s for another post maybe.
This moves me into the topic of healing. We ask when was the last time you really saw the Spirit move. What are we looking for when we ask that question? We’re looking for rooms shaking, wind blowing, and lame persons jumping out of their wheelchairs and Jesus calling out Lazarus from the dead, or stories like we heard about last night from 2 Kings 13:21. While I fully believe that God does miraculous healing, most people have heard me say “The per capita death rate is still 1 per person.” 83,000 people die each day, 15 million per year and my guess is there is a lot of prayer that they won’t die. Our concept of healing gets stuck in what is close to rare and then we forget about the healing that could be taking place each day.
This is related to a pet peeve of mine concerning Isaiah 53:5…
“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.”
From the context of this passage what is the writer talking about? It seems pretty clear that the passage is speaking about our ultimate sin problem and separation from God that is at the heart of our trouble. When did this passage become a cure for the flu or cancer, or goiter, or any of a large list of ailments. “All you have to do is claim your healing?” Again, none of us are getting out of here alive save the second coming of Christ. Then people who can’t seem to get healed lack faith or we’re forced to come up with an explanation of why God heals some and not others, but maybe, just maybe we’re living out “Adventures in Missing the Point.”
It’s a great big praise God moment to see a miracle take place, but it’s probably the exception more than the rule and it actually causes us to miss the miracle that could take place here in the next few minutes. Healing is for everyone everywhere, but as long as we make it out to be earth shaking, can’t miss events the more we will miss out on the heart level miracle.
Gods goal for us is intimacy with Him, a real oneness with the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. In the trouble of life our hearts get wrapped around abandonment, harsh words, restlessly needing to prove ourselves, never feeling adequate, over attempts to show we are adequate, using others, feeling used, power struggles to validate, living in the shadows and giving up, being overrun and just needing to catch my breath or being the one who overruns, restlessness, slothfulness, anything to cope with the deficiencies we feel rightfully or wrongfully identify in our selves. We turn to alcohol, work, greed, post likes, being the one with all the answers, being the one who doesn’t care about any answer. All of these things become an identity to us.
You want a miracle that everyone can have today. That, like the Leper, you could say to Jesus “If you’re willing you can make me clean.” And his response would always be a resounding “YES”. God wants to break through all of the walls our heart has put into place to deal with the weight of life, and you know what it would take to clear out all the underbrush… you got it… a miracle of healing that would alter everything. I’ve listened to the following song about 30 times this week and 10 times that in the last twenty years. It still gets me in the right frame of mind with my Lord and God, give it a listen…
The journey of the heart is a potentially overwhelming place, but replacing bitterness for forgiveness, longing for fulfillment, emptiness with overflowing, self with God is a place of life. I pray that we’d connect with the One who brings us the healing we so desperately need. There’s more than one way to be healed because there is more than one way to be sick. The Lord will cure the heart sickness for anyone willing.
“If you’re willing you can make me clean?” -prayerfully, all of us
“I’m willing.” – Jesus
Truth, Grace, and Time 