Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

 Healing through Worship

 Acts 16:16-18
v18 Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
 

When God created Adam and Eve, they were given perfect health and life and they were commanded "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." As we all know what happened next, Adam disobeyed God, and through that one man sin entered the world and death through sin, in this way death came to all people because all sinned (Romans 5:12). 
As a one-time solution to end the power of death, God sent his son Jesus to give eternal life to all who believed in him. Just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God's grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:21). In Revelations 21:4  God has promised to bring his children to a place where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For he will wipe away all our tears and dwell with us.
 
In today's portion for meditation Acts 16:16-18, we can see how Paul, in the name of Jesus. was able to heal a female slave possessed by a demon,
The spiritual powers that enabled her to predict the future were demonic and the girl's owners had enslaved her for the purpose of enriching themselves.
Once she met Paul and Silas, she kept following them and shouted out saying, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." Not needing a witness from a demon and to avoid the confusion of being associated with the Greek God's the people there believed in, Paul in the name of Jesus, commands the spirit to leave her. 
 
The above portion shows that God has the ultimate authority over all powers. All healing comes from God whether it comes supernaturally or through a physician.
Sometimes God will heal us and restore us back to health as he did for King Hezekiah, sometimes he doesn't despite our supplications as it happened to David's first son with Bathsheba. Sometimes illness comes because of our sinful actions as in the case where the Lord sent a great plague among the Israelites as they worshipped the golden calf Aaron had made, sometimes illness comes to us even if we lead a blameless and righteous life as it happened in the case of Job.
 
We can see from the life of Job that when he lost everything including his health, he fell to the ground in worship and said "Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the LORD be praised". We all know that God was faithful to not only heal Job but also to restore to him twice as much as he owned. God indeed has the power to heal and the best way to move God is through our faith in Him and through our worship.

 
PRAYER
Lord when we are crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, when we think that we will never live through it and we'll die, help us to stop relying on ourselves and to rely on you, the God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-11)
 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
When you turn your worry into worship, God will turn your battles into blessings.

 
Anila Mariam Thomas 
South Florida

Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church

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