This past weekend Jeff Bethke shared a message at our church. The focus of his message – view the sermon on video – was healing.
One of his underlying themes was that…
“Healing comes from knowing God, not knowing more about God.”
I thought that I’d share a few of the notes I jotted down in my notebook – along with some that came from the Sermon’s Study Guide – in an effort to share some relevant points that Bethke made regarding healing, and that are principles we find in the Bible.
- God gave the first man a mission – to care for the earth and to be an image bearer of God.
- He instructed man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted man to be dependent on Him for wisdom, not on man and on books. Proverbs 3:5-6
- Man disobeyed God. This sin was a type of fracture or infection. It has infected every person since with a sin nature.
- After this first sin, Adam and Eve covered themselves and hid. Our nature is to hide from our sin. Evil sends us into covering and hiding. When we are in hiding, we can’t be on mission for God.
- God’s response was to ask them a question – “Where are you?” His question to them was a call to come out of hiding. He calls us each to come out of hiding from our sin. He knows that if we keep our sins to ourselves that this gives the sin power over us.
- God put on human flesh – Jesus – so that He could walk amongst man. John 1:1
- Jesus cleanses us and makes us clean. Touching and being touched by Jesus makes us righteous, gives us hope.
- Knowing more about God is different than being in His presence. More than having information about Jesus in our mind, He desires that we sit quietly with Him in His presence. (read the story about the walk to Emmaus – Luke 24:13-34
- It’s in being quiet with God – in His presence – that we really get to know and experience Him and that an environment is created for healing.
- God wants to heal our emotional and spiritual scars because we can then share about God’s nature and goodness with others.
- And then He gets more glory!
It can be easy for us to seek more and more knowledge about God and His principles. And, though this is important, I believe that more than this, God wants us to just sit with Him and appreciate and worship Him.
My encouragement to you is this. Make it a habit to just sit quietly with God. (“Be still and know that I am God.” ~ Psalm 46:10) Open your heart to him. Invite Him to reveal Himself to you. Connect with Him – your heart to His. Make it about connecting your heart to His heart… not about getting more knowledge about Him into your head.
Then, simply enjoy His presence.
This is where real healing occurs.
Related Questions
What deep wounds or scars are you covering up or hiding from?
What do you do, or turn to, to hide from your deepest scars or to numb the pain associated with your wounds?
How frequently do you sit quietly with Jesus, without reading the Bible for more information?
Related Resources
Blog Post – Jesus is Asking – May I Eat With You?
Photo Credit:
By Patrick Neil (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Georgetown_folliage.jpg
