When we think of healing, most of us yearn and long and pray to see others receiving physical healing. We can see such healings with our eyes, can categorise and define such healings. Prayer for that kind of healing, however challenging, can be defined and offered to God. But the spiritual side of healing can be just as important, though it is less easy to define.

Psalm 41:4 TNIV says ‘Have mercy on me, Lord; heal me, for I have sinned against You.’ Sometimes we have to acknowledge that we have sinned and that causes our spiritual health to suffer. It’s not easy to admit to our faults and pride can often get in the way of asking for spiritual healing. 2 Chronicles 7:14 TNIV reminds us that God’s people are called to humble themselves, pray, seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways before we can know healing from God.

Our spiritual wellbeing affects more than we realise (including our physical health). Yet God is gracious and longs to heal us. Malachi 4:2 TNIV reminds us that ‘for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays and you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.’

Spiritual healing involves taking the scales from our eyes, peeling back the layers of our lives to see what is going on below the surface. Healing – both physical and spiritual – is found at the Cross, for by Christ’s wounds we have been healed. The healing God offers us will restore our joy to us so that we can frolic like well-fed calves, knowing an inner buoyancy and joy that guides us on every step of life’s journey. God wants us to know abundant joy. He does not want us to be downcast, held back, waylaid on life’s jounrey, but He wants us to know spiritual healing and wholeness.

Garry spoke this morning from Hebrews 11:1-6 TNIV about faith. Faith is the fundamental focus point of the Christian life. We receive faith as God’s gift to us (Eph 2TNIV) and have to exercise faith daily to please God. God wants us to launch out into situations where we are totally dependent on Him (as in the picture.) If He doesn’t come through for us, we fall flat on our faces, but as we learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to fly!

1) We need faith for ourselves
Our own faith needs to develop and we need to be quick to obey God, especially that ‘nagging feeling’ we have when He speaks to us, like a stone in a shoe or a splinter in our skin that just won’t go away!

2) We need faith for others
James 5:14-15 TNIV talks about the prayer of faith offered by the elders of the church resulting in healing. Matt 9:1-2 TNIV talks about friends bringing someone to Jesus and Jesus seeing their faith. In Matt 8:5-10 TNIV it is the centurion’s faith which amazes Jesus and results in the servant’s healing. We can believe for others at times and see amazing things happen as a result of our faith!

3) Unbelief, or lack of faith.
In the narrative of the boy with the evil spirit, the disciples could not drive out the evil spirit because they had no faith. Often, we think of faith as a muscle which needs to be exercised to grow, but Jesus talked about faith the size of a mustard seed, emphasising the presence of faith rather than its size. In Matt 17, Luke 17 and Mark 9, we see how the boy’s father needed help to overcome his unbelief.

There is an unbelief that God cannot work with (see Matt 13:55-58 TNIV or John 12:37-41 TNIV). If people are offended by Jesus and refuse to believe, choosing not to believe, they can limit what God chooses to do and hearts can be hardened. But there is an unbelief that is borne of incredulity or helplessness which Jesus is pleased to shore up (see the father’s cry ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’, where the word is likened to the practice of frapping, whereby a wooden ship is held together in a storm by chains and ropes around the hull to give extra support.) The father came to Jesus and asked for support in his desperation and lack of faith and Jesus responded by healing his son. God is able to work even when we don’t fully believe, as in the case of John Wimber, who preached and taught about healing for some time before he actually witnessed anyone healed.

4) Developing faith outside our comfort zone
At home, we have a fridge magnet that says:

As we hear God’s word (Rom 10:17 TNIV), we are encouraged to believe for new things and to step out of our comfort zone. Is 42:16 TNIV reminds us that God has said He will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths. That is extremely disorientating for a blind person, but God wants us to move beyond the familiar and well-known.

5) Faith Can Challenge
As we are led into unfamiliar territory, we will feel uncomfortable and afraid. It’s then that we have to trust in God alone. We may be scared, but if we get out of the boat, we find we can walk on water. We shouldn’t criticise Peter for sinking, but should realise that he was the only disciple who had the courage to do something beyond his normal experience. We should cheer other on to good things and not laugh at failure, but be there to pick each other up and spur each other on to faith and good works.

Mark’s provocative title helped us to look at the topic of anger. Last night’s focus was on our anger; the next Bible study will be on God’s anger, with the homework to consider the question ‘What makes God angry?’

We live in an age of rage, where anger is visible all around us. By studying anger and its power, we can learn self-control so that we do not lose our temper when frustrated or annoyed. Anger can be defused at times by our understanding of circumstances and by our calm response; it can also be defused through love and forgiveness.

Different things cause us to be angry. James 1:19-20 TNIV advises us on how to avoid anger: by being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Our anger does not bring about the rightous life that God requires. Our anger usually escalates tense situations and makes things worse.

Eph 4:31-32 TNIV shows us the proper reaction we should have: being kind, compassionate, forgiving. Romans 12:19-21 TNIV takes it a step further, urging us not to take revenge but to show mercy to our enemeis. We are not to be overcome by evil (or by anger), but to overcome evil (and anger) with good.

Matthew 5:22 TNIV urges us not to be angry with our brothers and not to judge them. Anger so easily leads to sin, even though it may not be sinful in itself. Anger, if uncontrolled, can lead to foolish words (and even filthy language) – see Colossians 3:8 TNIV.

Ps 4:4 TNIV gives us good advice to cool down, to lie on our beds, search our hearts and take time out to reflect. Prov 22:24-25 TNIV also gives good advice, urging us to avoid spending too much time with hot-tempered people. Ps 37:8 TNIV also warns of the dangers of anxiety, for fretting often leads to anger and sin.

Christian ways to avoid anger include:
1) having gentle answers to defuse wrath (Prov 15:1 TNIV)
2) being patient (Prov 15:18 TNIV)
3) seeking calm and searching our own hearts first (Ps 4:4 TNIV) – often we need to identify what it is that is really eating away at us!
4) learning not to sin while we are angry (Eph 4:26-27TNIV).
5) learning the way of love, which is the perfect answer to anger (1 Cor 13:4-5 TNIV). If we have the love of God in us and working through us, it will be directed towards other.
6) worship and prayer (1 Tim 2:8 TNIV).

Here is a further update from Steve & Katuska Davies, about to go out to Mozambique:

“It’s proving to be a memorable summer. The Little Ice Age came to an end, spring rather hurried through and now the sun is gazing indulgently even on the west of Scotland! Some of us, meaning Steve and the boys, have been sleeping out in the tent just to keep cool. Strawberries and cream are everywhere, Murray won Wimbledon (to herald a new golden age in Anglo-Scottish relations) and the First Test at Trent Bridge is warming up. Surely any Brits in their right minds wouldn’t be thinking of going abroad just now?

And yet, there we’ll be in three weeks’ time: at the Emirates check-in desk, with our worldly goods condensed into five fat suitcases and a clutch of documents to prove it’s really happening. This will be the summer that we go to Mozambique.

The latest stages of the journey have gone well. We’ve managed to revisit many good friends; Burnside Blairbeth Church treated us to a moving farewell and commissioning service; the boys finished school with good reports; we’ve driven south to visit Steve’s family. Still to come is a trip to Belfast for our niece Astrid’s wedding and a week’s camp for the boys. Otherwise, packing.

Thank you so much for your prayers! Our God has been faithful, has kept us on track and confirmed his will for us. Please keep praying in two areas: first for the boys, because in the middle of all the packing they still need our attention, and if they don’t get it we only tend to find out later; and second for visas and other bureaucracy, because despite our best efforts we’re at the mercy of other people, and their computers.”

I recently read a prayer that I think is relevant to the church’s prayer topic of healing this month. This is the ‘Collect for St Luke the Evangelist’ which says:
“Almighty God, who called Luke the physician, whose praise is in the gospel, to be an evangelist and physician of the sould: may it please You, that by the wholesome medicines of the doctrine delivered by him, all the diseases of our souls may be healed: through the merits of Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Here is another prayer on healing I have read recently:
“Lord of all power, I hurt. My body isn’t functioning as it needs to function. I am in pain. But You already know all that. I’m not coming to tell You what is wrong, but to ask You to do what is right and best for me. As it fits Your plans, heal me; mend my body and my mind and grant me days of better health and renewed strength. As I wait, give me an extra measure of endurance, patience, and perseverance. When my energy to press forward is lacking, pour Your power into me like a fresh mountain stream flowing into a beautiful lake. Lord, I know You are able to heal; I know it with the utmost confidence. Grant me now the wisdom to understand Your timing and the courage to accept Your healing. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Jeremiah 17:14 TNIV talks of the Lord as healer:

I think Mark would also agree with this sentiment!

“We have an unassailable future in the benevolent plans of God.” (Charlie Cleverly, ‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’ P 130)

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” (Jer 29:11 TNIV)

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31 TNIV)