Worship Ministry - February 2024
Names of God: Jehovah-Rapha
Many of you know this already, but when I was about 14, my mother passed away from cancer. This single event changed my entire life and changed the very fabric of my being. My mother was my person. I love my dad dearly and did when I was a kid, but I was a momma's boy. I’m sure she got tired of me always being underfoot and clinging to her every moment of the day. She was my comforter and the best encourager for this very shy and self-deprecating kid. She was the one I wanted to see when I had the best and when I had the worst day. She was my person.
So, you can imagine how difficult it was to say goodbye to her when she took her last breath. Left feeling helpless and lost; feeling like my whole world was crumbling around me and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. How was I going to carry on?
Jehovah-Rapha - "The Lord Who Heals”
It’s true, God, who holds all power in His hand and created all things, could have healed my mother’s body with less than a breath. No matter how extreme or deadly her cancer was, He could have made her well again, and what a testimony she would have had to share with the world! We read time and again how Christ healed the blind, the sick, and the lame, sometimes with nothing more than the stitching on His robe being touched. He encouraged all of them to go and tell the world what He had done. He could have done this with my mom and her sickness, and in a way He did.
No God didn’t heal her earthly body but He was a Lord of Healing!
My mother, a follower of Christ, surrendered her life to God and declared Him as King. Her name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. When she took her last breath, God welcomed her home and healed her! She no longer feels the pain of cancer. She no longer feels the burden of treatments. She was made whole and holy before the throne of God, Jehovah-Rapha!
I know that I wouldn’t be here where I am today, nor the person I am, without the experience of losing my mother. I wouldn’t have the understanding of God’s provision in times of need. God’s comfort in times of hurt. His plan for my life. So, as weird as it sounds, I am thankful for that experience. I think this is what is meant in 2 Corinthians
4:17-18: 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
May God prepare us for His eternal glory!
Love you and mean it!