Wholeness
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I often tell people who ride motorbikes,
“Be more careful when you ride motorbikes. Unlike automobiles, your body is the body of the vehicle.”
This advice is borne out of a motorbike experience I had, which left me with a prominent scar on my left shin; a permanent reminder of my folly in trivializing what goes into riding motorbikes. I always wish there is a way to reverse that scar.
Pondering this motorbike scar reminds me of the story in Luke 17:11-19. It reads;
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
And they lifted up their voices, and said,
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”And when he saw them, he said unto them,
“Go shew yourselves unto the priests.”And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said,
“Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
And he said unto him,
“Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”
( Luke 17:11-19 KJV )
In this text, ten people suffering from leprosy petitioned Jesus to have mercy on them, and He told them to go and show themselves to the priests. On their way, they were cleaned. But only one of them, a Samaritan, came back glorifying God, and thanked Him. Jesus asked where the other nine were, and then told him,
“Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”
The question is: what is the difference between what the nine experienced, and what the one who came to give thanks experienced? To understand this, we need to understand how leprosy works. Leprosy is caused by slow-growing bacteria, and results in skin ulcers, nerve damage, and muscle weakness. Without intervention, it can cause severe disfigurement and notable disability.
Treatment cures leprosy, and prevents it from getting worse, but it does not reverse the disfigurement and other physical damage caused. In other words, the “scars” remain. When Jesus told the man,
“Thy faith hath made thee whole,” ( NIV: “Your faith has made you well.“ )
He had gone beyond simply cleansing the man of leprosy as stated in verse 14. He reversed the distortions, deformations and disabilities he had suffered because of leprosy. He restored him into the perfect person God originally destined him to be.
When Jesus talks about wholeness, He is not just healing, but restoring! He leaves no scars, and we are restored to the perfect image of God in which we were created.
Being cured, healed or cleansed is removing the causative agent! Being made whole restores you to the original state before the problem(s). For the one who was made “whole”, it was as if he had never been ill; nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing malfunctioning!
There are many of us that have been healed, but have not been made whole; because we have not gone back to Jesus to say, “Thank you.“
And we are not going back to thank Jesus because we are still looking at our scars, and not surrendering them to Christ. If only we would take our eyes off our scars, glorify God for healing us; and look up to Jesus and say,
“Thank you!”
We would then experience complete restoration.
That is wholeness.
MEMORY VERSE
“Thy faith hath made thee whole.”
(Luke 17:19)
QUESTIONS
Are you lacking wholeness even though you have been freed?
Do you know that surrendering your scars to Jesus leads to wholeness?
PRAYER TIP
Father, I am healed but I still have scars. I surrender my scars to You today, because only You can make me whole again.
URGENT CALL
Every soul is valuable to God, far more than the entire world! But by nature, we are all sinful, and alienated from God, and we ultimately face his wrath!
God in His mercy and love made a way for us to remedy this. He gives us a chance to reverse this downward spiral to destruction, join His family, be part of His household, and become His children.
The first step to becoming a member of God’s household is for us to be saved.
Salvation comes through accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Personal Savior.
It is a very personal decision. No one can make that decision for you.
If you make that decision today, there will be great singing and rejoicing in heaven; because one new member has joined the family and household of God! A soul, much, much more valuable than the world, has been saved from destruction!
Do you want to make that decision today?
Please visit “The Believer’s Prayer” for guidance if you want to make that decision.
Then develop your new relationship with God through your Quiet Time.
Then find a Bible-Believing Church where you can Fellowship with like minded people.
We will be happy to hear from you through the contact information on that page, or the ones at the top of this page. Don’t delay. Make this very personal decision today!
God richly bless you
SPECIAL GRATITUDE
Thank you for visiting the Testimony Devotional Website.
We would not have gotten here without your prayers, goodwill and overall support. We are grateful, and humbled.
We thank God for counting us worthy to share in His Great Commission; and we thank you for sticking with us through this journey.
God richly bless you.
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