Unexpected rest

The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.
(Psalm 41:3 NIV)

Yesterday I had an unexpected opportunity to rest.

You know, the kind of rest that happens when you have a full weekend and have to cancel events? The kind of rest that involves chicken soup, Tylenol, green tea, and zinc drops, maybe even a trip to Urgent Care? A rest where your friends say, “We love you but we don’t want to be near you right now.” Yeah, that kind of forced rest.

Sigh.

It’s ok though, because this, too, shall pass. I may fight a fever for a day or two, but I will honor my body’s need for rest and extra germ fighting nutrients, and I will allow God’s healing power to work in me at the cellular level. God wants us to be healed, whole, and healthy. Jesus came that we might have Abundant Life. He took the sins of the world on himself so that we could be healed. Healing can come in a variety of ways, but prayer is definitely one of them.

Jesus the Healer,

Thank you for taking our sins, our illnesses, and our infirmities to the Cross. Thank you for the healing power of prayer and all the natural and man-made ways you use to bring healing to people. Today I pray in the name of Jesus for healing for all those fighting flus, strep, colds, or other communicable viruses and bacteria. May you help them to make healing choices as they care for their bodies, and may you cause their bodies to fight off the germs. We ask for restoration of complete and total health and energy to come upon them, in Jesus’s name. AMEN.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”  (1 Peter 2:24 NIV)

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]. (John 10:10 AMP)