All my life I’ve struggled with how to start a conversation with someone about their relationship with God. I’ve longed to find some way to get started without offending them or making them mad, or driving them away. It’s a very personal subject, one that many people are uncomfortable talking about.
One time 3-4 years ago, I had a friend named Evelyn, who was dying of pancreatic cancer. She worked part-time for the same guy I worked for. She was about my age. She was in the hospital, fading fast and I went to visit her. I didn’t know whether she had a relationship with God or not, but I wanted to talk to her about it. I didn’t know how to start or what to say.
I don’t know if it mattered, but I took her a prayer blanket that had been made by ladies at our church. They even prayed over it and anointed it with oil, especially for her. Now that I think about it, maybe God used that prayer blanket to touch Evelyn and me both.
Anyway, I was standing there beside her bed, trying to think of something to say, when God says, “Ask her if she’s made peace with God.”
So I did. Right out of the blue I said, “Well, have you made peace with God?”
She thought about it a minute and said the most amazing thing, “Since my husband died about 9 years ago, me and God haven’t had much to say to each other.”
After I thought a second I said, “Evelyn, God loves you; and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or failed to do, He forgives you; and all you have to do to get right with God is to trust Him and accept His forgiveness.” She said she’d think about it.
She must have done it though, because after she died, her daughter told me that after we talked, she was at peace, happy and thankful; free of all the fear and anxiety she’d had before.
Praise the Lord!
The question for today is: Can a believer in Jesus trust God for the healing (inside or outside) of another person? The answer (or at least one answer) is found in Mark 2:1-12, where it tells the story of four men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. When they got to His house, they couldn’t even get in the door, so they went up on the roof, cut a hole, and lowered the guy down into the room, right beside Jesus. Then verse 5 says, “Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ ” When the Pharisees condemned Him for forgiving sins, denying His authority, He said, “I’ll prove that I have the authority to forgive sins.” He turned to the man and said, “Stand up, get your mat and go home.” Miraculous healing.
In Matthew 5: 38-39a: Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, but I say unto you, don’t resist evil people.” In Leviticus 19:18, God said, “Don’t seek revenge, don’t hold a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Romans 8:1-4: “1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not follow their sinful nature, but follow the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the sinful nature, God, by sending His own Son . . . condemned the sin of the sinful nature, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not follow our sinful nature but follow the Spirit.”
Romans 12:1 says, “I beg you, brothers and sisters, to present you bodies as a living sacrifice ….”
Luke 9: 23 says, “If anyone would follow me (be my disciple), let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The point I want to focus on right now is about our daily habits. We can’t go many days without eating (and we certainly like to eat every day); we cannot live more than a few days without water; we have to sleep regularly, mostly every night. If we don’t go to work or school every day, we won’t last long in those endeavors. If we don’t do these things every day, we will languish, and diminish, and die.
In Luke 4:14-21; Luke says, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ [Isaiah 61:1-2] Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ ”
James 5:14-15, 18: 14 “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. . . .18 The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
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