It's Getting Better

Daily Reading: Jeremiah 30

Scripture Focus: For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 30.17)

Devotional Thought: I love what God tells us in Jeremiah 30.17:

Your wounds I will heal… Just last week, a little girl in my church sat down next to me and showed me her scraped and bruised knee.  I asked her what happened.  “I fell down, but it’s getting better.”  We fall down, don’t we?  But, the good news is that with Jesus, “it’s getting better!”  Life leaves us wounded.  We often find ourselves beaten and deserted along the path.  The world passes us by.  But Jesus, like the Good Samaritan, finds us and binds our wounds.  He carries us to safety and provides for our needs until his return.  By his stripes we are healed!

I will restore health to you…  As part of "getting better," there is a life to be lived.  The little girl who fell and scraped her knee, happened to be sitting next to me in my little red convertible.  We decided to go for a ride.  We had fun laughing and singing and letting the wind blow through our hair.  (Well, through her hair!)  She didn’t think about her knee while we were in the car, enjoying the ride.  As a matter of fact, she didn’t bring it up again.  That’s the way it is with Jesus.  He gives us a new life, a new focus.  Instead of just being grateful for healing, we find ourselves living a full and healthy life.  Our joy increases, and our gratitude expands to match it.  When Jesus finds us along the road, he makes us better, but then he gives us abundant life (John 10.10): peace and family and significance.  He gives us love.

Thank God that it's getting better!

Prayer: Yes, Lord, I thank you that it's getting better.  You are healing me and restoring health to me.  For those who are suffering sickness and sorrow, I pray that you would help them to experience that same healing and health.  That they, too, would find, "It's getting better."  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 119.17-24

17 Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.

18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

19 I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!

20 My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.

21 You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.

22 Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.

23 Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.

24 Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors