PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 15:29-31
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“The people were amazed… and they praised the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:31)
It is not surprising that the people were amazed at these miraculous healings.
To see the mute, the crippled, the lame and the blind made well was amazing.
But what was also amazing was that Jesus even bothered with such people.
Those who brought them did so because they loved them.
But typically the powerful were not so loving or concerned for the ‘weak’.
The Romans were a ‘power’ people, celebrating strength and shaming weakness.
The religious leaders taught that sickness was a punishment for sin. (John 9:1)
To see Jesus willing to take the time to heal such people was amazing!
Matthew specifically mentions “the God of Israel”, and this is important.
The God of Israel was known for choosing and helping the weak (Psalm 146:6-9).
“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” (Isaiah 40:29)
This God of power used power to love, to help, to heal, to bless the weak.
Jesus is this God with us, becoming weak for us to make us strong!
Jesus is still amazing, and eagerly welcomes those who are sick, weak and rejected.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for reminding me that God cares for the weak. May I appreciate this for myself, but also demonstrate this to others, that they may experience how amazing you are.
They were amazed and they praised God – the right connection. We need to catch a strong sense of amazement too – especially in the face of frustration and negativism. In the face of disaster – when we see the buildings crumbled by a serious earthquake. We can be amazed at the forces of nature and appreciate more fully our own limitations – a parent trying to remove rubble to find a child under it – how tragic. Yes, the forces of God’s created design are beyond us – we only need to look up and try to grasp the vastness of the universe – we need to be amazed and praise God. Live our lives knowing that we are in God’s loving care no matter what happens. Jesus reached out to the sick, the disenfranchised, the widows, the neglected – and he blessed them with healing. We can praise God when some one is healed or most importantly finds the way to Jesus – let us praise God as He works in our hearts and be amazed!
What a Saviour!
The people then saw His amazing power and praised Him.
Today, He continues His amazing power but I just need to have open eyes and an open heart to see the daily miracles and majesty of my God. He is here. He continues to do amazing things for His people. And I, I need to be an instrument of His peace to those I meet and greet. Others need to see Christ living in me, passing His love and grace to those around me. His word and His deeds.
Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord
And where there is doubt true faith in You
Make ma a channel of your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there’s sadness ever joy
Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul
Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
It is in giving to all man that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life