Touched

 Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26

This week I've spent a lot of time thinking over a question we had with the kids in social studies. They had to pick their favorite person from Roman history and answer why they picked them. I was asking someone who they picked and why. They replied Jesus, because the heals. All week I've been coming back to ponder this in light of this Scripture.

What healing had to take place for Matthew to leave his booth? There had to be something. Was he just working there because he was smart and feared what the Romans might do to him if he didn't work for them? Did this fear subside because Jesus called him by name? Or was it because Jesus held the Silk in the midst of the storm between Rome and the Jewish elders? After all this is who is criticizing him as they say at his house.

What if we believed as believers that we can heal? What would that look like in our world right now? Don't people more than ever need healing? Do we believed our know how to bring healing to a hurting world? 

For too long healing has meant miracles. Raising the dead to life but can't this mean giving someone who has lost hope in living life raising them back to seeing the value of this life now. It's way it is important not to just have names in the prayers of the people for this sick or dead but to name as many blessings as we have concerns. Because when we only name concerns we get lost and dead in the depths of them and forget the blessings we receive daily.

Think about how much bad news there is. We can get lost in it. And if we are the ones who are meant to bring healing, how can we be equipped for that if all the bad news weighs us down? Counting blessings is the hardest thing to do in the midst of the storms of bad news. It was one of the things I've been taught through the years by people who have had the hardest times going on in their lives. It is a valuable gift because it does bring healing to those around us.

So find the ways to daily count your blessings. See the gifts a day brings. They begin to multiply if you do. And you will find not only healing going on around you but healing inside yourself.