I feel like quite a few of my posts have been about me being frustrated with various things. One of the things I have been overly frustrated with is the fact that I have been on crutches due to a broken leg for the past 10 weeks. I moved to Florida, for school, on crutches and I have not been able to do a lot of things. I have not been able to go to the beach, rock climb, skate, surf, and I haven't even been able to do laundry without help. I consider myself a pretty active person so not being able to do all of these things has left me extremely frustrated. I got my cast off and started going to physical therapy 4 weeks ago. When I got there the physical therapist said it would take a couple months for me to be able to walk again without crutches. If you know me, I was not satisfied with this at all. I made it my goal to be off the crutches in a month. I figured a realistic goal for myself would be to ditch the crutches by the last week of October. According to the doctors and my physical therapist, this was not a realistic goal. Little did they know, I had an advantage. I have a relationship with a God that heals.
Since I broke my leg I tried to view it as a learning experience. I knew that if I was open, God could use this to teach me something. I began praying for healing, a quick recovery, and patience (something I often lack). I learned so much about myself and my relationship with God through these past 10 weeks (and it's still not over). I won't go into great detail about that in this post because it would take a long time to list everything and that is not what I want this post to be about. Through all of this prayer and growing closer to God, He has worked miracles. Last Thursday I told my physical therapist that I was going to stop using my crutches and walk without them by the upcoming Saturday. Upon telling her this she kind of laughed and said good luck. I took that as a challenge and knew that if I really believed that God could heal me then He would. The next day, Friday, I started walking around campus without my crutches. By Saturday I did not use them at all and I even went to the beach for the first time. God answered my prayers in a BIG way and I have be able to do more than I thought I would be able to because He has been healing me!
In Luke there is a story about Jesus healing ten men with leprosy. I found this passage very moving and relevant to my situation. It says:
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Back in this time, people with leprosy were required to stay away from everyone because their disease was contagious, but if the person believed they no longer had leprosy they could go to the priest and the priest could declare them healthy enough to interact with other healthy people again. All ten of these men still had leprosy when Jesus told them to go see the priest, but they went anyways out of faith. It was their faith that healed them. The odd thing is that only one of them came back to thanks Jesus. There is good news in that though. This shows us that people can be healed even with an ungrateful spirit, but there is something even more interesting going on with the one that did come back to thank Jesus. At the end of verse 15 it says, "...and he was a Samaritan". I did not know the significance of this, but it struck me as odd that Luke decided to include that small bit of information. Upon looking into it farther, I discovered that the Jews had a deep hatred for the Samaritans because the Jews believed they were pure, direct descendants of Abraham, while the Samaritans were a mixed race of Jews that had intermarried with other people after Israel's exile. Samaritans were thought to be the last people to act in a "correct" way. When Luke adds that the one man that come back, he is showing us that God's grace is for everyone and not just a select few people. How incredible! Also, when this Samaritan came back, he learned that it was his faith that had healed him.
I feel kind of like this Samaritan because I have been thanking God for what he has done and I have realized that it is my faith that has healed me. I have been in a constant state of awe and thankfulness that God has been healing my leg faster than anyone, including me, thought was possible.
I want to challenge you to pray for something specific that you need healing from. It might be a physical, emotional, or mental need. When you ask God for healing, do not doubt but have faith that He will heal you and work miracles in your life. "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind" (James 1:6). Pray BIG!
Always Rambling,
Jonathan
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