Set Free

Daily Reading:  Luke 13

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. (Luke 13.12-13)

Devotional Thought: "You are freed..."  That's what Jesus said.  You are – right now – set free.  Not you will be set free or you are becoming set free.  The tense Jesus used signifies a present reality based upon a prior action.  In other words, "I’ve already set you free!"  The implication is life-changing.

Yesterday, I was called to go and pray for a lady who was in desperate physical need.  Others were called to participate in the prayer as well.  Besides me and the lady I was there to pray for, there were two men with severe back pain themselves, a blind man, a woman who has a condition affecting her ability to balance, and a woman who had survived cancer but who was struggling with other health issues.  All of these people had infirmities.  But also, all of them had been set free from them.  They were not defined by nor controlled by their circumstances.  I was particularly impressed with the cancer survivor.  As she counseled our sister for whom we prayed, she encouraged her to see beyond the current pain and realize that Jesus was there with her in the pain.  Of course we prayed for the pain to be abated, and it was.  But as I think back upon it, the immediate effect was that our dear sister was set free from the pain – it no longer controlled her.

Are you set free from your infirmities?  Jesus has already done so.  That may mean that you are healed physically, but it definitely means that you no longer are under the control of your infirmities!  There are some situations that I pray about that do not change.  But, I change in the circumstances.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for setting me free from the control of my circumstances.  Even when my circumstances don'tchange, help me to live victoriously and joyfully and confidently.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 139.7-16

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,"

12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.