Good Morning All,
Luke
13:13; “And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight,
and she glorified God.”
There
was a lady who suffered from a disabling spirit. She suffered for eighteen years. Jesus saw her suffering and he touched her
and healed her. Eighteen years, that is
a long time to be all bent over, unable to stand up straight, always in pain;
eighteen years is a long time indeed. It is hard to imagine suffering like this for
eighteen years; it is even harder to imagine the joy that this woman must have
felt. She was in pain all that
time. She probably never had a good
night’s sleep; she probably didn’t interact with her neighbors much; she
probably had few friends. She didn’t
really live; it was more of an existence wondering if tomorrow would be any
easier than today. She lived like that
for eighteen years before she was healed.
How long have we lived in pain? How long have we let the weight of a past sin
keep us awake at night? Perhaps it has
changed the way you have interacted with other people. If the pain is from a fight or argument with
a family member, some had to “choose” who they “sided” with. If you battle substance abuse, and lost, you
may have lost a spouse or parent or child through the painful event. Maybe you said something, took something,
left something or just ran in a moment of panic and left everything a
shambles. It has played on your mind and
weighed on your heart the whole time.
The devil loves those times and
events. He loves to keep telling you
that you have gone too far. He loves to
tell you that there is no way back. He loves
for you to have a disabled spirit, one that knows no healing, one that knows no
hope. The devil wants you to suffer from
this condition for years; actually he wants you to suffer your whole life. He wants your spirit disabled so that you
will not listen to God. The devil wants
you to think that what God is saying is not for you.
Yet God is speaking to you, through his
Word and through his sacrament, he is reaching to you with his words of
healing. Those words, “you are forgiven.” God offers you those healing words and no
matter what the sin, what the past painful event, God forgives you and wants
you to be healed. He wants your spirit
to be enabled to hear his words and to trust his promise. He wants your spirit to live in harmony and
communion with His Holy Spirit. God
wants to renew in you that clean heart.
God seeks to give you the power to heal the wounds that exist in our
lives and in our relationships.
No matter how long you have suffered from
the pain of sin, no matter how long you have been weighed down; God forgives
your sins, all of them, whether you have carried them for eight days or eighty
years; God forgives you. Trust his
promise and stand upright and throw off the weight of sin that disables your
spirit. Live in God’s mercy.
Father,
by your great mercy we have hope.
Because of your unfailing love we fear no sin. Lead us to trust in your unquenchable desire
to have us live with you in your kingdom.
Guide and protect us. Be with
those who are still burdened by the weight of sin. Bring them healing and hope. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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