As I thought about all my attempts for healing yesterday I
was reminded of how many people in our world keep running from promised relief
to promised relief. They find themselves in a miserable situation and they
start searching for answers. If marriage is not working they sometimes run to the
arms of another, they checkout, or eventually file for divorce in hopes that
the pain will go away.
People quit jobs, drop out of school, jump from church to
church, always looking for what will make them feel better. Some will turn to
drugs, alcohol, even suicide seems to be a good answer to getting out of
misery. Oh, there are Tarot cards, zodiac readings, new age philosophies, yoga,
and all kinds of cures that promise hope, peace, and inner happiness. Sadly, we
often look at Jesus as just another cure to our inner misery.
We keep trying to breathe, but nothing seems to help. If we
were honest we would admit that Jesus doesn’t even make it go away. Well, not
in the way we want. You see, just as I was searching for an immediate cure to
all my sinus trouble, I never really believed any one thing would work. Why
else would I over medicate myself?
I wonder if there are times when we over medicate ourselves
on Jesus “things”, because we actually lack faith to trust Jesus to bring the
healing his way and in his time. Bible verses can become our Benadryl, Zyrtec,
Sudafed, and Flonase. We try a little prayer, we grab ahold of some catchy
verses, but we still don’t find the depth of healing that Jesus wants to give
us through true intimacy with the Great Physician.
I believe, that Jesus might want something more personal
than just snippets of Biblical cliché’s. The sickness we bear in this life
needs radical surgery. Sin, is not something we can self-help our way out of.
There are no twelve step plans, nor 10 commandments that will eradicate our
disease. No, we can only be cured when we lay ourselves on the surgeons table
and let him perform the surgery that is necessary.
In surgery, the surgeon does not ask for us to assist her in
removing the damaged organs. No, we must fully trust that once she has placed us
under the anesthesia that she will keep us alive and bring us through. So it is
with Jesus. We must fully trust the genuine person. Scripture was not intended
to be a self-help manual. It is a book that is to bring us into an intimate
relationship with our God (Jesus).
Are you still suffering? Seek the Great Physician, Jesus. I
would encourage you to daily lay yourself on his surgical table and allow him
to perform in you what you cannot do for yourself. Luke 9:23 encourages us to
pick up our cross daily. You see, the cross is the ultimate symbol of trusting
God and letting him perform his mighty work in and through us. Remember, the
cross is the symbol of hope and healing. Oh, the cross is painful, but those
who follow Jesus will trust that even if death takes us, resurrection is only a
few hours away. Don’t settle for an over the counter symptom relief
Christianity. Have the surgery! Trust Jesus, he is able to do what he says he will
do.
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