Luke – Wide Open Doors
Think of a time when God got your attention. Think of the power used to do something you could not do by yourself. What you thought impossible God made possible. Reverence, amazement, wonder and even fear gripped you with awe.Now think of a man who has only one son. That son is ill, very ill. He is filled with demons who torment him so much that he is physically impaired. The man does want he can for his son. But nothing seems to help, he only gets worse as the days go by. The father has to keep him at home because of his malady. He cannot take him out in public because he knows if he does the risk is too great for another attack. His only son is sick and he is beside himself with grief for his boy. He wants the best for his boy.
Then he hears of a man who is healing people all over the countryside. Jesus is his last hope for his only son. The father makes his way through the crowd to beg Jesus to come and help his son. But Jesus tells the man to bring the boy to him. This is a risk of showing the boy in public that he will take.
As the father predicted, the boy convulsed in front of the crowds of people and in front of Jesus. But Jesus knew what to do and He had the power to do it. Jesus drives out the evil and heals the boy in front of the people. By bring the boy to Jesus, God’s power and glory was seen in full view of all the town’s people who knew the father. Jesus gives a healthy boy back to his father. Awe gripped the people who witnessed this display of God in Jesus as God’s only son. Wow.
Luke 9, New Living Translation
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
37 The next day, after they had come down the mountain, a large crowd met Jesus. 38 A man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child. 39 An evil spirit keeps seizing him, making him scream. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It batters him and hardly ever leaves him alone. 40 I begged your disciples to cast out the spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”41 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you and put up with you?” Then he said to the man, “Bring your son here.”
42 As the boy came forward, the demon knocked him to the ground and threw him into a violent convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy. Then he gave him back to his father. 43 Awe gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God’s power.
Dear Heavenly Father,May we never lose our wonder and awe as we witness your power and glory each day. Just getting up this morning to greet another day is miraculous. Seeing the sun rise and fall as the earth travels around it keeps me in awe of how you created this universe we live in and take for granted. All things work according to your will and plan. Yes, I am in awe of you, gripped in wonder by the hands who created all and is in all. Thank you, Lord.
In Jesus Name, Amen
