I believe I have mentioned the saying, “God feeds the birds, but He doesn’t throw the worms in the nest.”
This is incredibly accurate. He is not going to make the birds eat the worms, and though He provides the worms He gives the birds the choice to go get them. We have the same choices. We have free will that is a gift from God.
How does this apply to healing from God? Well, let me explain. The story in John 5 that talks about the invalid that Jesus saw lying there and who had been unable to walk for a long time is where I’ll start.
Jesus asked this man if he wanted to get well, and the man talks about having no one to help him in the pool of water where he believe he can be healed. So, Jesus tells him, “’Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” (John 5:5-9)
I mentioned last week that I prayed for instant healing, and instead God has been healing me through a process. What I did not talk much about was I had to make the choice to get better.
I had to make the decision to make counseling sessions and money for them a priority. I had to make the decision to do the hard work. I had to make the decision to use the skills I was taught and to go to the dark places so I can heal.
It was a choice that I had. I could have easily ignored it all (and believe me I did try that for years), but the thing is that was not God’s plan or His desire for me. He truly wants us to have the ultimate freedom He has for each of us. I couldn’t fully embrace and become all God has for me without making the choice to do the hard work – and pursue healing.
So, just like the man that Jesus healed I had to “take up my mat and walk.” Jesus still left it up to the man whether he wanted to continue to lie there or get up and walk. The man chose to get up and walk, but he did have the choice.
Like I mentioned last week. you have the choice to call on Jesus and His power or to try to do it on your own – where I promise you will struggle more than God intended. We need to remember that we have the power of God and ask Him for it.
Join me today as we do.
Father God,
Thank you that you provide the amazing power that I need to make it through today and each day that you bless me with here on earth. Remind me, as Christy Wright said in her devotional, to “work as it depends all on me, but pray like it all depends on you God.” I need You. I need Your power, Your love, and Your grace so that I can heal. Bless me beyond what I can imagine so that You can be glorified, and others will see Your power at work.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
© 2021 Susan M. Clabaugh. All Rights Reserved.
There remains a general, albeit perhaps subconsciously held, mentality out there: Men can take care of themselves, and boys are basically little men. It is the mentality that might help explain why the book Childhood Disrupted was only able to include one man among its six interviewed adult subjects, there being such a small pool of ACE-traumatized men willing to formally tell his own story of childhood abuse. Could it be evidence of a continuing subtle societal take-it-like-a-man mindset? One in which so many men, even with anonymity, would prefer not to ‘complain’ to some stranger/author about his torturous childhood, as that is what ‘real men’ do?