Devotion Page

We are living in an era of unprecedented health with modern medicines. Almost none of us can remember a time when antibiotics were not available. Penicillin was discovered in 1928. Many can remember taking the Polio vaccine. Few know of friends who actually contracted the deadly disease.

Our health is taken for granted until a catastrophe such as a medical pandemic causes us to rethink our behavior. We suddenly become vulnerable. Fearful. Untrusting of our surroundings and the people we come in contact with. We realize just how fragile life really is.

We also realize how desperately we need each other. Isolating ourselves from others is terribly lonely and unhealthy. We wish for the ‘good old days’ when people sat outside in their front lawns in the evening and visited with neighbors. When summers for children were filled with bike riding, playing in creeks, and playing hide-n-seek until the street lights came on. This was ALL unsupervised play I might add. During that time, most mothers stayed at home while the father went to work. Even fewer families were divorced.

Today, we have few diseases that are incurable. Many are manageable, and the incurable are being heavily researched to find a cure. The many health fears of yesterday are gone. Air conditioning and personal entertainment are common. Today our monsters are often safety concerned. Child predators, terrorists, thieves, gangs, the attack on family. We often think ‘things are different today’, and outwardly they are. Physical things may be different, but the inner thoughts and emotions are no different than before.

God is also no different. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He still hears our cries, knows our struggles, and only He can change our hearts. He does care about our physical wellbeing but He cares more for our spiritual wellbeing.

When Matthew 8:17 quoted Isaiah with “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases”; he was talking about our diseased soul. Jesus came to save us from soul destruction. That is a problem for all generations.

Yes, God can, and often does heal our physical illnesses, but He cares most for our souls. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”. His will is for all of us to be with Him for eternity. I pray to see you all there one day with the Almighty.