BEFORE AMEN (Lucado) - Heal Me

Post based on Max Lucado's book, BEFORE AMEN: The Power of a Simple Prayer, 2014.
Daddy. You are good.  I need help. Heal and forgive me.  They need help.  Thank you. Amen.

HEAL ME

Lucado quotes from Chapter 5:

• How do we explain the how and when of God's healing? 
• God's goal for you is wholeness. 
• Sickness and sin still stalk our planet.  But here is the difference: neither sin nor sickness will have dominion over God's people. 
• If Jesus heals you instantly, praise him.  If you are still waiting for healing, trust him.  Your suffering is your sermon. 

1.10.15  Forsake. Care For.
Psalm 22:1 GNT
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?  
I have cried desperately for help, but still it does not come. 
Psalm 23:1 VOICE
The Eternal is my Shepherd.  He cares for me always. 

      Wow.  Two psalms from David.  Just a chapter apart in the Bible and they read so differently.  Isn't this how we often feel?  We waver between the impression that God isn't listening, God doesn't care, God 'let' something bad happen to the joy of knowing God's presence, the assurance that God is with us every moment of every day.  How can our life be such a dichotomy - bookends of good and bad? 
      Lucado asks, "How do we explain the how and when of God's healing?"  How do we explain the times of apparent abandonment with the moments of miracle cures?  There is no ready answer to explain the mystery of God.  Yet, we know we are never abandoned.  God is present.  God is good.  God is at work for what is BEST for us.  God's timing, not ours.  Some mysteries are not meant to be understood, just experienced.  

 1.11.15 Go to the Top
Matthew 20:32-33 VOICE
Jesus (taking the two blind men aside): What is it that you want, brothers?
Two Blind Men: Lord, we want to see.
     Two men by the side of the road who needed healing.  The crowd ignored them; the disciples ignored their cries.  But the two men knew who could make a difference: they went straight to the top - call on Jesus.  In answer to Jesus' question, they gave a straight and simple answer, a here-is-my-request kind of answer.  Heal me.  And Jesus did. 
     There are many doctors who acknowledge they are not 'the top'.  They pray before they begin surgery, often with the patient.  I find this comforting.  I would want this before any surgery I would have.  Our doctors can be the hands of healing, the hands of Jesus, but the source of healing comes from God.  
     When we turn on a light switch, the light comes on.  But the light may be in another room, on the porch, or in the closet.  The power has to travel along a middle-man wire from source to light.  Doctors and medical personnel are the wire conveying and transferring the healing power from source to patient.  But first we must turn on the switch and ask: heal me.
      

1.12.15  God-Time
Mark 8:23-25  GNT
After spitting on the man's eyes, Jesus placed his hands on him and asked him, 'Can you see anything?'  The man looked up and said, 'Yes, I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.'  Jesus again placed his hands on the man's eyes.  This time the man looked intently, his eyesight returned, and he saw everything clearly.  
John 11:4,17 MSG
When Jesus heard it, he said, 'The final result of this sickness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory.'......When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already four days dead. 

       God doesn't always heal instantly.  Sometimes it is a delayed healing such as in the two scriptures noted.  And sometimes, healing happens when we pass from this world to the next.  But God wants us to be whole; God wants what is best for us.  So when our healing is delayed, why?  There must be a reason or purpose.  What lesson or sermon need I hear?  What service am I to perform?  Those who are close to God and have suffered a physical loss or impairment, will often voice, 'It was the best thing that ever happened to me.'  They became more aware, more compassionate, or more in tune with others.  When you look beyond the hurt, you can find God at work in the delayed healing.  Healing happens on God-time. As Lucado writes....Instant? Praise! Delayed? Trust! Prolonged? Dig deep for the why!