I went to a healing seminar and service the other day. What an experience! What is a healing service? I didn’t know, so I went. It was pretty simple. We read places in the Bible where God/Jesus miraculously healed people, from blindness, from death to life, from paralysis, from being possessed by demons. (A miracle is something that God does directly; it's something that is clearly supernatural.) We then prayed specifically for healing.
    They needed some volunteers, and since my shoulder had been aching for about three months, and a chiropractor couldn’t get the pain to go away, I raised my hand. It’s not like I have cancer, just a sore shoulder. If the prayers don’t work, it’s won’t be a big deal. Four people prayed fervently, specifically that God would heal my shoulder. They prayed, “In the name of Jesus, take away Fred’s shoulder pain.” Alright! “Heavenly Father, what a testimony this would be for Fred’s ministry work if you would heal his aching shoulder.” “Please do it, God; you made our bodies; you know exactly what’s wrong with Fred’s shoulder. Please fix it very soon.”
                                                                                                            
    After about ten minutes of prayer, we took our seats. They asked us few who received the prayers if our pain was gone. No, mine wasn’t. Another lady a few seats away who also had a sore shoulder, had little or no pain anymore. 
    “What’s wrong with me?” I wondered. For the next several days, I continued to personally, specifically pray for my shoulder; I wanted to see God do it, for my faith in Him. I also thought much about “strongholds” in my life that could be getting in the way of my relationship with God. By strongholds I mean areas of sin that God might want me to work through in order for Him to heal. So, one week after the healing service, the pain was still there but I had largely worked through and beyond some wrongs in my life. “But God, I have an MRI (a very expensive X-ray) scheduled in a few days, and my insurance recently changed so it will cost me a lot more. Please bring about some real relief to my shoulder, real soon.” Just a day before my MRI, He did it! The pain subsided by about 50% and it keeps subsiding. Chalk another one up for the Great Physician, my Heavenly Father. Can I write, “our Heavenly Father?” If you didn’t know, He’s sure interested in adopting you into His family if you haven’t allowed it quite yet.

    In connection to last time, can you say for your life, “the old has gone, the new has come?” Are you on that journey, working through and beyond? If not, then you first need to deal with that if you want to be a role model.
    Here’s some encouragement wherever we are. 99% of the work is God’s. He did the 9.9 out of 10 steps to make us right. Titus 3:5 of the Bible reads, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.” Fugh. Ahh. We just need to take the 0.1 step of receiving His mercy, his forgiveness.
    Abraham, the ancient man of God in the beginning of the Bible didn’t do everything right to become “the father of many nations” (Romans 4:18 of the Bible). He believed, and it was “credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:9 of the Bible).
    Ah, it’s a very real possibility for any of us humans to be relational and transparent, and at the same time a positive role model who is working through and beyond the troubles of life.
    Having this Bible perspective that God loves us and He is merciful, and He does 99% of the meeting with us gives me all kinds of peace, and a purpose and motivation to know more, and to just be a better person. I can do it because He does most of it. I just need to ride along. Is this too good to be true? Yeah, but it is what it is.