when i’m hurting spiritually, james says we are to pray.
james 5.16a (msg), make
this your common practice: confess your sins to each other and pray for each
other so that you can live together whole and healed.
in JESUS’ day and in many places today it is taught that all
sickness is a result of sin. if you are ill, then supposedly you had some
hidden sin in your life. if you
confessed and still were sick then you still had some other hidden sin. JESUS blew that idea out of the water in john
9 where HE said to the man who had been born blind that nobody sinned.
i think this is a very unfair concept. you think of babies being born with birth
defects – obviously that baby hasn’t sinned.
we live in a fallen world and part of that problem is there are hurts
and problems.
on the other hand, JESUS did teach that a lot of the sickness
we bring on our lives we do bring upon ourselves. if i don’t follow GOD’s principles, my body
is going to find out about it. if i don’t
take care of my body, eat right, sleep right, exercise right, then all kinds of
ailments will come upon me.
if i don’t listen to GOD’s word where it says, don’t be anxious about anything, but pray
about everything and i worry, fret, get anxious and i get an ulcer, then i’m
to blame for it. if i allow resentment
to build up in my life... doctors say it’s not so much what you eat but what’s
eating you that makes the difference ... resentment can take its toll in your
life and it makes a big difference. if i
don't trust GOD and i allow these things to come into my life there will be
sin.
confess your sins to each
other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.
many years ago a pastor was invited to see a man who was
paralyzed from the waist down and had not been in church for about nine months.
the pastor began to talk with him and he
was a very bitter man, just filled with resentment. a cow had kicked him in the back and
paralyzed him. he was bitter against
members who hadn’t visited him, bitter against the insurance company for not
paying off, bitter against the doctor for not figuring out how to make him
walk, bitter against the cow, bitter against GOD. he was very resentful.
the pastor said, “GOD may want to heal you and restore you to
full health, but HE will not heal you until first you get rid of that
resentment in your life.” the pastor
said, he remembered the man bowing his head and he began to weep, almost
uncontrollably, deep sobs, “GOD, i have been so bitter. just flush all the anger and hate from me.” he wept for about 10 minutes.
the pastor then prayed with him and he left. the next day the man came to church, in a
wheelchair, the first time he'd been in church in nine months. at the end of the service the pastor gave a
“come forward” invitation to people who wanted to come and pray. the man got up out of his wheelchair and
walked down to the front and recommitted his life to the LORD.
what happened? there was
a block in his life that was keeping GOD from doing what HE wanted to do in his
life. when he got his SPIRITual act
together, the other fell into place.
just a thought from the front porch…
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