"What Love Looks Like"
5m
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First Friday Fellowship
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What Love Looks Like - Matthew 8:2-3
God will show you how much He loves you, and it will be exactly where you need it to be, for those that trust Him, and look to Him.
Matthew 8:2-3
2. Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” 3. Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.
Why the need to physically touch the man with leprosy, when clearly it wasn’t necessary for Jesus to touch him to heal him? Why is this so important and accounted for in Matthew?
Jesus was more than just interested in healing the man physically - Do you think it is possible that he spotted an even deeper need that the man was struggling with and that was the man had no human contact? Lepers were considered pariahs they were kept away or at the very minimum only in groups with other lepers. They were unclean and needed to be kept from the healthy population.
We don’t know how long this man had struggled with leprosy. We also don’t know the real reason that Jesus touched him. We can only speculate.
But one thing we do know, and what all of us should attempt when we read scripture, is do our best to put ourselves in the situation being described, and watch God’s word unfold as if you were an eyewitness seeing the heart of God being revealed in His word.
How often do we just gloss over scripture and don’t fully immerse ourselves and miss the real teaching?
When we play this movie out in our heads and we see the leper with his disease afflicted arms and legs and we watch him kneel and beg the Lord to be healed and watch in our mind’s eye.
Jesus look deeply in the eyes of the man who is afflicted and maybe hold his hands or hold the sides of his face and say “I am willing,” “…be healed”.
Then watch how the man responds, as not only his skin is instantly made whole, but the direct warm contact from someone who clearly and affectionately loved him PERSONALLY.
You see, the Bible is telling real stories of real men and women who lived, loved and died. We have to make sure that we do our best to see what the truth really might have looked like, and avoid the sterility of words on a page.
We have to work hard not to miss the real story, as we do any Bible studies or daily devotionals.
I know I am guilty of frequently being more concerned about checking things off a list, than getting the insight that I need from God’s Word; Which is why a daily devotional is on the “list” in the first place!
WE HAVE TO GET THE INSIGHT.
WE HAVE TO SEE WHAT GOD IS TRYING TO TEACH US.
GOD LOVES US!
He literally will move heaven and earth for us.
He only asks us to recognize, respect and honor that love by trusting Him, following His commands (for our own good) and thereby TRAINING OURSELVES ON HOW TO LOVE HIM BACK.
Make no mistake, Jesus was every bit as interested in showing the man with leprosy that he loved him, and was willing to heal his body and the even deeper needs of his soul.
Every word in the Bible can be used to learn something.
Something to think about - until next time.
The episode "What Love Looks Like" from the podcast First Friday Fellowship has a duration of
5:33. It was first published
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