Statistics report 85 % of the people who visit a doctor are ill because of stress. The stressors range from traumas caused by auto accidents, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, assaults, robberies, rapes, plane crashes school shootings, fires, and other catastrophic events. Then we "hit the wall" or burnout from stress about money, jobs, conflicts with family, our health and the weather.In gospel times, everyday stress was caused by demons which today we would label as some clinical disorder. However, there was a hunger for healing when word spread that Jesus was in your village. The sick might be a mother-in-law, an unclean spirit, a leper, someone dangling from your rooftop on a cot, a withered hand on a Sabbath. Each cry was a hunger for healing, and Jesus healed them. And I would like to suggest the same is true for you and me. We too have a hunger for healing inside of us, for ourselves, our family, our friends, so many people. Jesus said: "Those who are well have no need of a physician; but those who are diseased need a physician. I, Jesus, have come to heal those who are sick." In other words, Jesus was and still is the Great Physician.
But be honest and ask yourself, what is the unhealthy stress in your life at this moment? Are you really well? What Jesus really wants and needs from you is a hunger in your heart for a healing of those relationships, those conflicts, those stressors which are causing disabilities in yourself. Jesus wants us to have a hunger for healing inside our souls.
Let me share an image to help you heal from your pain and disease. Once upon a time, a little girl with leukemia was asked to imagine in her mind how her cancer was being cured. Our little girl imagined a river of life. She believed that it was like a river of white blood cells, and those white blood cells washed around the tumor at every side of it. That river of cells was washing her tumor away.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we imagine our tumors of despair and sickness being washed away by your healing power. Let us pray for our own wellness and pray deeply for the wellness of those around you. Pray deeply. Persistently. For God’s strength. For God’s healing. For God’s Presence
