Blessed Lord, You give sight to the blind, You open the ears of the deaf, and You make the lame to walk. Hear the prayers of Your people on behalf of all people as they have need…acknowledging and trusting in Jesus Christ the healing power of God.
In the darkness of sin and its death, we cry to You, O Lord. Open our ears by Your Word, our minds by Your Spirit, and our hearts by Your grace, that we may know and be thankful for all the blessings You have given to us in Christ, our Lord, especially the gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation. Strengthen us in faith, that we may serve You with all our body, mind, soul and strength. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Bidden by Your Word, we pray to You, O Lord, on behalf of Your Church and all Your people in every place. Give to us good pastors and servants of Your Word who will preach the full counsel of Your Word and serve us with Your Sacraments. Raise up many more to serve as church workers, and bless those who are now preparing for full-time church work. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Defended by Your grace, we ask You, O Lord, to provide us with good and faithful leaders. Who will honour the cause of justice in our land, preserve the precious gift of liberty, and protect the lives of those least able to defend themselves. Bless the members of our armed forces and protect them as they defend us, and grant Your blessing to all emergency workers who come to our aid in time of need. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Enjoying the riches of Your grace, we ask You, O Lord, to give us generous hearts. That we may share with the poor what You have provided and work for the common good of all. Be with those who are unemployed and in search of honest labour, the underemployed in pursuit of better jobs, and the homeless seeking basic shelter for themselves and those in their families. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Knowing Your healing will and gifts, we pray You, O Lord, to remember the sick in their afflictions. Calm those troubled in mind, and to keep steadfast the dying. Show us Your gracious will, O Lord, and sustain those who are afflicted in body or mind until that day. When You will bestow upon us new bodies fit for the eternal life You have prepared for us in Christ. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Mindful of Your promise, we ask You, O Lord, to comfort those who grieve and to build up those who mourn with hope for the resurrection. Remembering the faithful who have died in Christ, we pray You to bring us, at last, to be with them in Your nearer presence, looking forward to that day. When we shall join in the marriage supper of the Lamb in His Kingdom without end. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
All these things, O Lord, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, asking You to grant our prayers not for our sake but for the sake of Him alone. Teach our hearts to be content with Your will and to trust that You will answer us with what is best for us and at the right time for our need. So do we pray, giving testimony of our confidence in Your gracious favour in Jesus Christ the healing power of God; by answering with one voice. Amen.
Dear Beloved, we are living in a strange time when the world is telling us we should stay home and fear disease, love ourselves, and trust in the governments above all things.
Is this from God? It is in times of tribulation that we see who our true god is. Sometimes God has to bring us to the point of death and despair before we finally let go of all those false gods and trust in Jesus Christ as our True Provider.
During these times do not be discouraged. I encourage you to look nowhere and to no one…but Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus is the healing power of God. Look to what He has done over and over again to provide for us, even when we doubt and grumble. The people of Israel had seen so many miracles performed at the hand of God through their servant Moses, time and time again.
In Egypt, they had slave masters beating them, armies chasing them, and a sea of death in front of them, yet God delivered them from all these things. But they soon forgot all these things and listened to their bellies and most often followed other gods rather than remembering what God had done for them.
In Exodus 16:3 they complained: “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger”. That might seem like an odd statement but it is an important one. The truth is, if we are ready to admit it, we do not want to be dependent on God. So much for gratefulness! How long must God put up with them then and with us today?
When we look deeper in Scripture we also see that the feeding of the 5000 was foreshadowed by the prophet Elisha. Often overlooked but these are helpful for us because all the miracles that Elijah and Elisha did were also done by Jesus but in a more amazing way. Elisha fed 100 with 20 loaves. Jesus feeds 5000 men plus more women and children with only 5 loaves and two fish. He is greater than all the Old Testament prophets. Not only does He feed 50 times more but even in the account of Elisha, it was not by the power of Elisha that they were fed but the miracle was done by the power of the WORD of the LORD.
Who is the WORD, the Logos? That is Jesus, who was, who is, and who will be. He is the creator and sustainer of us all. The disciples forgot that and we also have the tendency to forget ourselves and that negatively affects our faith. When we fail to remember the wondrous works that he has done, we lose hope. We look around and are limited by our human understanding as was the problem of the disciples.
The most common sign of original sin is that we are only concerned with ourselves and not with others. In times of danger or famine even during this Coronavirus, you might even hear someone say, “Every man for himself!” This is the attitude of the disciples when they tell Jesus to send the crowds away and to buy for themselves. It is as if they completely forgot that Jesus was the one who brought them out there and was providing food for their souls all day long.
Did they forget His first miracle of turning water into wine? Or perhaps the more terrifying thing was that Jesus told THEM to give to the people. What is the very first god that they turn to? Money! It is a test of faith as we see in the account according to John (6:1–14). The test was to get them to look to Jesus as the one who provides all things and not to ourselves or money. Jesus never wants us to turn others away and He would never turn you away because He loves you. Jesus loves you because He is the healing power of God.
Friends, God wants to be your provider and my provider too. He wants to be the God we fear, love, and trust above all things. Jesus is the true manna who fed the Israelites in the wilderness but He also has better food than that for you and your soul. Jesus is the power of God and has the capacity to do all things for those who believe in His name.
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” (Mt 15:32).
And again Scripture says: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36. Jesus sees the harassments of COVID-19: Don’t shake hands, don’t fly, don’t travel, don’t go to church, and don’t go to school. Stay at home; wash your hands every time you touch something. Keep wake and fast. Go and test!… O what a stress!
Jesus knows. He is aware that you are harassed, worried, stressed out, and helpless. He will never send you away. Jesus is the power of God: Come to Him who are weak and heavy laden and He will give you rest. You do not need to run and hide in your homes. Your walls and your roof will not protect you from Judgment Day, but Jesus will. He is your help in every present danger and in time of need.
The problem is, we have often forgotten that. Repent, be forgiven, and remember where you have come from in life and how God has given you an abundance of blessings. Your talents, abilities, prosperity, and daily bread have always come from the True Provider, Jesus the power of God.
Paul asks: What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Cor 4:7). What we need to repent of is the false god: me, myself, and I.
We also need to repent of thinking that we need to save our lives on this earth. There have been many plagues and calamities through history. Worse ones are still to come before the end of the world, but we do not worry: Because our hope is eternal life with Jesus who is the power of God!
Beloved, It is a gift of God that we are confronted with this global pandemic. Because it gives us time to realize the bigger picture. Doing so, God also turns us to the most important food and the True Source of it all. Jesus is not sending you away but He is drawing you to Himself. This is especially important as we are living in the latter days when so many false churches are preaching heresy with the prosperity gospel and telling you that you can have your best life now with earthly wealth and riches… None of those can help you, except the active force working through Jesus the healing power of God.
Be at peace dear Christian. Jesus is our True Preserver and the Devil cannot take that away. Though he rages and foams and threatens us with pandemics, Jesus is there to feed us. And if on this earth, sin and sickness strike, even when we are the weakest. Do not be afraid; Jesus the power of God will lift us up and take us to the room He has prepared us. Where “they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Isaiah 49:10).
Now may the peace of God which transcends all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
AMEN!