I missed getting my quiet time in yesterday. First, Marianne and I got up early to get to church with ‘the Littles’ by 9am so I could pray with the elders over a man with cancer in our church (come to find out, this is next Sunday [face palm]). Bella and Sophie were not feeling well so they stayed home. Marianne and I attended church at the 9:30am service and then immediately headed south to go look at a couple of houses on Herron Island (about a 90 minute drive south). It was a beautiful day with a leisurely drive, a 10-car ferry ride to and from the island, and then a late trip home getting us back around 8:30pm. A full day of adventure for us and ‘the Littles’.
My Quiet Time this morning was one of those reinforcing moments the Lord is likely laying on my heart through repetition. Yesterday Pastor Steve spoke on the many testimonies of the Apostle Paul as he was led circumstance by circumstance into more and more opportunities to share God’s gift of Grace brought by His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In every situation Paul leveraged the opportunity of ‘witnessing’.
And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” Luke 8:45-48 [NKJV]
Yesterday I read ahead a little and thought that I would be pondering the healing of this woman who had been battling a hemorrhaging disorder she had struggled with for 12 years and how this interrupted Jesus’ quick travel to see Jarius’ daughter who was dying…but no, God had something else to show me today –> It dawned on me that Jesus knew exactly who touched Him. He knows everything.
So, why did He ask? I think it was because that even though the woman had the faith in Him to heal her, she also needed to understand that she could not hide the amazing work that had been done in her by God. The LORD deserves all the glory and we should never withhold the accounts of God’s work in our lives. Notice that as soon as she revealed herself to Jesus and the throngs of people who were around them, He answered with “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Application:
This whole takeaway sides right in with what Pastor Steve taught yesterday. When the Lord does a work in my life, answers prayer, or when I see the Hand of God moving in powerful ways, I must be open and quick to acknowledge it and call it out…interleaving it into the testimony God has given me. Beyond all else God deserves the Glory and secondly it places me in an Eternal Mindset and focus because that becomes the goal; sowing the seed of God’s goodness and mercy available to anyone who will listen and is being called by God to Himself.