October 11, 2022

This Week's Teaching | Prayer Requests

Do You Feel "Lame" In Your Christian Walk?

Recently two of our churches were studying in Acts 4, where Peter and John healed a man who had been born lame.

As I considered it, I was given faith for how it might apply to people who seem to have been “born again lame.” I know that’s not a real thing, but we’ve all known people who have come to faith in Christ, but have never learned to walk victoriously in him. (And no doubt we’ve all experienced our own version of feeling lame at living out our faith.)

The Gospels and Acts are filled with stories of God healing people. God heals. He can and he does. Sometimes he heals the physical body now, and for a time. But there is an ultimate healing that awaits each of us through our death and resurrection! Scripture tells us that our transformed bodies will be glorious, unlike anything any of us has ever seen! This is our real joy and eternal hope, even if for a time our bodies wear out.

Now, it’s also true that God heals us spiritually. Anyone who calls out to him in faith will be given his Holy Spirit, and thereby renewed. It’s like being resurrected or reborn, as we lay down our lives, dying to self, and then becoming alive to him.

Sometimes a person calls out to Jesus and it’s like they spiritually jump to their feet and dance around shouting Hallelujah! Other times it’s more like someone else recognizes their need along with a seed of faith, or a glimmer of hope. And then, in faith, they reach out and take the person by the hand to help them into the faith—to help them stand up victoriously in Christ. Both are well worn stories amplified in the praises of God’s people.

My sense is that some of us probably feel like we were born again lame. Others of us are probably carrying the heartfelt burden of people we care about who have difficulty walking with Christ faithfully.

Whichever position you find yourself in, please watch this week’s teaching with this in mind: God may be calling you to receive your spiritual healing by taking someone’s hand. And he may be calling you to heal someone else spiritually by taking their hand.

I’ll teach next week about how we learn to walk, but it starts with standing to our feet. I believe God still heals, and he wants to heal all who are still spiritually lame.

Please watch prayerfully.

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“They devoted themselves to prayer.”

• New Microchurches. This week I enjoyed a conversation with a couple of men from Estacada, Oregon who are trying to discern their involvement in starting an X242 microchurch in their area. Others are actively considering the same in their own cities. Pray that God would lead each of us clearly.
  
• Himalayas. Last week we gave $1,290 to a pastor in the Himalayas who will use the money to purchase coats and carry them up into the remote mountain villages this December. He’ll hand them out to poor children where Christ is not known. Pray that they are encouraged by our love, and that they’ll open their hearts to the love of Christ as they hear this foreign gospel.
  
• Hurricane Ian. Pray for the people of Southwest Florida who have been displaced and traumatized by Hurricane Ian. This connects directly to the churches in our Sarasota network. Pray for peace and stamina. Pray for discernment about how best we can help them.
  
• Healing. Pray for a Sarasota man and his wife who have been caring for his elderly parents, whose mother’s cancer is growing. Pray for someone else’s business partner who has cancer, that the chemo would serve God’s purpose in bringing her to complete healing.
  
• New Disciples. Pray for people who are meeting with various microchurches and considering the faith. One couple states clearly that they are not believers, but feel drawn to the group. They have some health concerns as well. Another man is pursuing something more than the religious tradition he was brought up in. Pray fervently that their hearts, along with ours, would be open to the hope of the Gospel and filled with joy and conviction as we open the scriptures together each week.

If you have any prayer requests, please comment below. God is faithful!

Amen.