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, which 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 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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