NPC Weekly Devotional
for the Week of February 15th - February 21st, 2009
for the Week of February 15th - February 21st, 2009
| Scripture Reading: | |
| - | 2 Kings 5:1-14 |
| - | Psalm 30 |
| - | 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 |
| - | Mark 1:40-45 |
As my father lay dying in a hospital bed, the son of one of my father’s friends came to pray “for healing.” I’d been in seminary for two years and I knew the sound of that phrase. There was no way I was letting my mother be exposed to this, so I took this young man – who did not know my father – to his bedside.
He then laid his hands over the area where my father’s lungs were no longer managing to sustain life and spent thirty minutes quoting scripture about how Jesus Christ has the power to heal and even to raise from the dead.
He then commanded God to give new breath to my father that he might get up and walk out of the hospital bed. I left that room incredibly angry. We knew from the doctors that my father’s lungs were simply so sick from years of smoking that he could not breathe sufficiently.
This is not to say that I do not believe that God can heal. I believed then and still believe now that, had it been God’s will my father could have recovered. However, the true healing to be done was for me and my mother as we dealt with my father’s reckless abuse of his body which led to his death long before he would ever see grandchildren.
Daily I cry out to God to save me and to turn my mourning into dancing and daily God answers my prayers as I get out of bed and face a new day – bright shining with God’s love.