Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

I can't stop loving you

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Acts 5:12-16
Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles ... they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits.

And they were all cured.

So much healing still takes place. Sometimes it feels like a miracle, sometimes not, but healing happens all the time. Much of it is medical, of course. Miracle drugs and amazing surgical techniques bring so many back from the brink of death or depression. And many other times it's the result of prayer: several people I know have prayed and had their cancer disappear within hours.

In my counseling office people's eyes sometimes snap wide open as they realize how their memories are being transformed by the Holy Spirit. They see themselves differently from that moment. Defeat and despair cringe. They wither away in the heat of God's love. Abnormal brain chemistry begins to change.

Whole people get healed wholistically. I might feel confusion and doubt about the healing's source, but as I notice my whole life changing into joy it's not likely I'll walk away saying, "No, I don't want that." Instead I open my mouth in thankfulness and praise. God is good.

Back in the day
Peter's shadow falls on me, and I am healed. I am renewed and invigorated. I look forward to going to sleep and getting up in the morning. And everyone who asks is receiving the same thing. I really am overwhelmed with joy and happiness. Earth isn't the same place it was a week ago.

God is alive. Jesus is alive. Peter proclaims his gospel and carries healing with him everywhere he goes. His eyes are full of love when he reaches out his hand to touch a leper. Nothing in Peter shrinks away.

Couldn't this go on forever? Has death been conquered once for all? None of us need to die. We can come to Jesus and receive all the healing we'll ever need.

In a few years the story takes a different turn. Eventually Peter is crucified upside down, martyr killed by men who have not received their healing. Jesus offered, and Peter told them so. Disbelieving they turned away and killed the messenger. They called him a fraud, but he was not. The war between Satan's rule and God's new rule raged on.

God will never remove my freedom to think and choose for myself. He is patient to watch me wrestle and suffer and finally die, never removing his invitation to be healed. He is in charge, and he knows there is no hurry. I am his child, and I will come back to him. He has no place else to be, this God of all glory, God of all might. My rock-solid father made me and loves me and knows me and waits for me. Waits like that for every one of his children always.

And they will all be cured.

Your love outlasts my ideas about it, Lord. Everlasting. Mercy and grace and peace follow me all the days of my life; you wait for me to just turn around and see. Let me do just that, Lord. Turn around and open my arms and invite invite invite. Come Lord Jesus. Come and heal my soul.

Devotions Archive

I can't stop loving you

Sunday, April 11, 2010