Sunday and Birthday Party

Sunday was a good day.  I preached on the last few verses of Matthew chapter 4, where Jesus was teaching and preaching and healing.  I went into depth about understanding how God heals when we pray.  God is not our little puppet who does our every bidding.  He is our amazing Father in heaven who gives us exactly what we need in his glorious timing.  We must pray according to his plan and his ways, which are eternal and not temporal.

Does God answer prayer?  Yes.  Does God answer pray for the sick?  Yes.  Does God sometimes answer in ways that seem miraculous?  Yes.  Those questions are not up for discussion.  The difficulty is understanding that our sufferings and sicknesses are normal, not experiences that come from evil or punishment.  Suffering is the normal expectation for every believer!  That is why we pray.  The "mystery" of our faith is the awareness that God is in control and his ways are redemptive in nature.

We can pray with our human desires, but we must allow them to fall into line with God's.  Is is an undeniable fact that not everyone we pray for is healed.  But we pray with our faith and our hopes.  God can do anything he wants to, and we find solace in his wisdom and comfort and purpose for our lives.  I read a quote that said:  "Healing in the Bible is not becoming what we were but becoming all that God intends us to be."  Very powerful indeed.

It is not always God's will to heal physically because then no sick believer would die.  It is often God's will to heal, and that is why we trust him fully.  Both these statements are true, so we must not focus on one to the exclusion of the other.  We must keep our faith and our eyes on God's will.

Then, Sunday evening, Shawn and Crystal brought Bailey over for a small birthday dinner.  We had cake and ice cream after Bailey opened some presents.  She was so excited and fun to watch.  Today, April 4, is her actual birthday and we will celebrate again.  Here are some photos from yesterday.