Jehovah Rapha

Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
John 5:8-9

Nearly every day I walk into this precious building I get a little teary eyed. Pat, a wonderful lady who has worked here for many years, has one of the greatest faiths I've ever encountered. It is so beautiful, it is suffocating. Today, when I walked into the office, we started chatting about some of the sensitive wounds in our lives.

I was speaking to Pat about my plans for the future, and how it looked as though graduate school at Regent University was going to work out. Somehow this led to me telling her about my cousin who is spending his fourth year in a vegetative state.

When I was a senior in high school, he fell into the pool in their backyard. He has been in a coma ever since. My aunt has the most convicting faith of anyone I know. I remember her saying that he will wake up one day and ask her for ice cream. Praise the Lord.

Pat related my family's tragedy to the story in John. Jesus says, "Get up." According to scripture, the man had been an invalid for 38 years. This man had lived most of his life, day-in and day-out as a sickly citizen. All of a sudden, this Christ swoops in and demands he get up. He did. Pat says that she says that to herself when she's feeling a little slow, "In the name of Jesus Christ...GET UP!"

Lately, I have been in the need for emotional healing. I could feel God saying to me through Miss Pat this morning "get up."

God is Jehovah Rapha, the healer.

Bless the Lord! He wants you to "GET UP!" from any emotional or physical pain you are in today. Do not, for a second, believe that you are too ill for His great healing.