Finding life
by Peter Brokaar
Jesus healed many people during His days on earth and He charged His followers to continue this mission. We, as a ministry, also seek to bring God’s healing and restoration to all those who come to seek God’s help at our Centres. But, just as it was in Jesus’ days, so it is now: some of the people who are seeking healing actually have a deeper need than their sickness / disease. Ultimately, Jesus came to free us from our sin and from a self-centered life. He came to set us free from this tight prison and He’s redeemed us to release us, so that we would no longer live for ourselves, but for God. We find that when we no longer live for ourselves that we can indeed say ‘He brought me out into a spacious place’ (Psalm 18:19 NIV).
Because we are all human we can easily get it wrong. Because of our sin, we can twist that which God intends for the good. We can get so focussed on receiving God’s healing that we forget what it is all about - loving Jesus more than we even love ourselves. The Message Version puts an interesting slant on today’s Bible verse : ‘If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me’.
When we find that our thoughts and our prayers start revolving around finding God’s healing and His blessing we may end up focussing more on ourselves than is good for us. We may very well end up introspective and – dare I say it!- unproductive for His kingdom. However, when we turn to Him (that is: away from our personal needs) with all our hearts we find more of Him. Ironically, when we find more of Him we do end up finding more of our true self and we find a genuine freedom in life. But it all starts with looking to Him, and not to ourselves.
So, if we find we have got it wrong (I know that many times I have!) then we can thank Him for all of those Scriptures which encourage us to turn to Jesus and away from ourselves. We can ask Him to help us focus on Him, and not on our needs. We can start receiving eternal blessings and everlasting joy when, with His help, we focus our eyes on Him and away from ourselves. Thank You Jesus for genuine freedom!
Prayer: Lord God, You know that I want to live for you and follow Jesus. Help me, Lord, to focus not on my own needs, but on You. I now want to say to You that I want You more than that I want Your blessing. Thank You Lord, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Peter Brokaar is Director of Ellel Ministries Scotland and has been there together with his wife Liz since 2005. They have 3 kids, all born in Scotland! In his free time he likes reading, cooking, running and surfing. Being at Ellel Scotland has given him the privilege of getting to know God deeper and sharing that joy with many others.
Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship. Provided full acknowledgement is made to Seeds of the Kingdom as the source, you are also welcome to use it in a non-commercial way and reproduce it in magazines or other Christian websites. The copyright for any commercial use of the material remains with Ellel Ministries International.
