Rock and Roll

UV3255/10000 Rock and Roll

Then He said to him, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17 v 19

In this uni-verse spoken by Jesus Himself, we see the intimate connection between faith and healing, faith and wellness. Jesus had healed the ten lepers who cried out to Him but only one came back to Him to thank Him. Faith is about thanking the Lord for all the grace and blessings we have received. Being grateful to the Lord ushers in wellness into our lives. The Samaritan leper came back to Jesus, praised God with a loud voice while the other nine who were presumably Jews just took their healing and did not thank Jesus or praise God. He came back and fell at the feet of Jesus. I too spend a few moments every single day lying at the feet of Jesus, thanking Him for wellness, healing, deliverance, blessings and His grace and mercy. When we do this every day, we are ready to rise and go into the world and be a faithful witness for Jesus.

This morning I had the privilege to pray for the healing and grace to bear for an old friend whose husband has lost all his faculties except his hearing due to an auto-immune disease. I could not answer her question why such a fine human like her husband who is generous and large hearted should be afflicted with such a deadly disease. But I told her I could pray for his healing and for grace for her to bear such enormous hardship. I read to her the portion from the gospel of Matthew of how Jesus healed a paralytic after forgiving his sins. When Jesus was challenged by the priest as to how He could forgive sins as only God can forgive sins, He proved He is God who heals by commanding the man to rise, take up his mat and to walk. When we are challenged by an impossible situation, Jesus takes us to the next level of faith. The Word of God, the authority of Jesus meets our faith halfway to cause the miracle of healing in cases where modern medicine cannot heal.

Faith is more powerful or effective than medicine. When the physician gives up, the Lord takes it up. Combined with the Word, faith can help us deal with any situation and heal any disease. Jesus asked the ten lepers to show themselves to the priests as it was required in Jewish law to prove that we can subject ourselves to the normal course of treatment even as we seek the healing touch of the Lord. Since we do not know the cause of many happenings in our lives, nor the future course of events, faith fills the gaps in our knowledge, gaps in our control of situations. Jesus has proved Himself to many right through history that He is a reliable Person in whom we can repose our total faith and trust. He is the Rock who gives us the strength to roll through all life’s situations.